Rom. 8. 17. so may we likewise say If no Sons then no Heirs None can be Sons that are not justified none can be justified which believe not in the Death and Blood of Christ there can be no Belief in this Blood if not shed This Death and Blood of Christ 1. Expiates sin and makes it remissible 2. Merits the eternal Inheritance promised and the Promise too 3. It merits the Spirit to enable Man to keep the Covenant so as to obtain and receive the Inheritance 4. It merits a Power in Christ 1. To reveal the Gospel and give the Spirit to work Repentance and Faith in sinful Man's heart 2. Upon Repentance and Faith and his Intercession a Power to give Remission and the eternal Inheritance Take away this Death this Blood there is no Expiation of Sin no Inheritance no Covenant and suppose a Covenant and a Promise yet it 's ineffectual invalid without this Blood this Death For all the heavenly Promises are made for and in consideration of this Blood satisfying his Justice and meriting his Favour so that without it they are all nothing to purpose neither without it can the called though obedient to the heavenly Call ever have any Right unto or Possession of eternal Life So that the whole strength and efficacy of the Covenant doth depend upon this Blood for by it our Sins are expiated and our Consciences purged so as to be capable of the Inheritance This is a most clear Text to prove that the Saints even under the Law were called and saved and that not by the Ministry and Sacrifice of the Levitical Priests but by the Blood of Christ the vertue whereof extended to former times even the times of Adam Neither did they trust in their Sacrifices and their Priests and the Blood of Bulls and Goats and their Water of separation but in the Blood of Christ yet their Faith was very implicit The third Proposition is Christ is the Mediator of the new Covenant for this Reason and for this End An excellent Covenant must have an excellent Priest and Mediator and seeing this Covenant doth promise eternal Remission and an eternal Inheritance it requires such a Priest as shall be able by his Ministry and Service to obtain this Remission and Inheritance This no Priests by their Sacrifices or any other Service could do but Christ could and therefore not they but He and He alone was made the Mediator of this new Covenant For by his Death he expiates sin and purgeth the Conscience so that the called receive the Promise of eternal Inheritance and the vertue of this Death is universal in respect of time and persons called The Sum of all this is That Christ by reason of his Death and Blood expiating Sin and purging the Conscience is the Mediator of the new Testament or Covenant to confirm and make it effectual to the Heirs of the Promise § 15. This Confirmation of the new Covenant is illustrated from a two-fold Similitude the one is taken a Jure Naturali the other a Jure Ceremoniali The first is taken from the Law of Nature for to it the Civilians refer the Rules of Testaments and Wills and is delivered Ver. 16. For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator Ver. 17. For a Testament is of force after men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all whilest the Testator liveth THis is an imperfect and contract Similitude for the parts thereof as of all Comparisons are two 1. The Proposition 2. The Reddition And yet the Proposition is only expressed and the Reddition is only implyed and to be supplied from the antecedent Context In the Proposition we may observe two things 1. The necessity of the Death of the Testator barely asserted Ver. 16. 2. The Reason thereof rendred Ver. 17. The Argument in Form may be this That which is not of force whilest the Testator liveth that necessarily requireth the Death of the Testator to make it of force But a Testament is not of force whilest the Testator liveth Therefore it requireth to make it of force the Death of the Testator The Assumption is expressed 1. Affirmatively A Testament is of force after men who are Testators are dead 2. Negatively It 's of no strength whilest the Testator liveth The Comparison at large is this As the Death of the Testator is necessary to make the Testament of force so the Death of Christ is necessary for to make the new Covenant of force For though Christ might in some respect be a Mediator of the new Covenant yet he could not make it valid firm and effectual without his death neither we under the Gospel nor the Fathers under the Law could without this Death be saved by it And as the death of the Testator gives full force and efficacy to the Testament and this Confirmation is an Effect of his Death so the Death of Christ gives full force to the new Covenant and makes â—â— effectual and this validity and efficacy is an Effect of this Death of Christ and manifests the excellency of this Sacrifice and of Christ the Priest who offered it The things compared as like are the Death of Christ and the Death of a Testator The things wherein they agree are 1. The like Effect of both which is to confirm and make effectual some Instrument 2. The necessity of both for that end to confirm and make effectual § 16. The Propositions in the first part of the Comparison are these 1. There are Testaments of men 2. These are not of force whilest the Testators live 3. They are of force upon the Death of the Testators 4. The Death of the Testators is necessary to make them of force 1. The matter of all Testaments is a temporal estate of these earthly Goods which God hath given Man to preserve this temporal Life The Testator is one that hath a just Title unto these Goods so that he hath power to dispose of them The Testament it self is the manner of disposing these Goods so as to give the same Right which he had in them unto other Persons after his Death and therefore it must signify his Will concerning these Goods and nominate the Persons who must succeed him so as to have them And because it 's an Act of Reason so to do therefore the Testator when he makes his Will must be Compos mentis and have the Use of his Reason and also sui Juris and not under the power of another The end of it is to prevent future suits and dissensions and Injustice about his Estate The Light of Nature doth teach men thus to dispose of their temporal Goods and therefore they are of ancient and universal Use. 2. These are not in force whilest the Testators live and the Reason of this is not only because whilest they are living they have need of or do use their Goods and though they make their Will in their life-time yet they
is there is no more offering for Sin IN all which we may observe 1. The Apostle's manner of Allegation ver 15. 2. The Text alledged ver 16 17. 3. The Aoostle's Application of the Text to the point in hand ver 18. 1. The manner of Allegation we have in these words Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness to us For after he had said before The principal things here considerable are 1. The thing testified 2. The Witness testifying The thing testified is implyed in the word Whereof and it is the excellency of Christ's Sacrifice in respect of the virtue thereof in taking away Sin for this is the principal Subject of his present Discourse and the demonstration of this Virtue is chiefly intended The witness testifying this is the Holy Ghost a greater a better Witness we cannot have This Testimony we find in the Scriptures which signifie That all Scripture is given by inspiration from God we read it in the Prophet Joremiah therefore he spake and wrote this as moved by the Holy Ghost Jeremy so speaks and writes them as the words of God for saith the Lord is his Style from whence we observe That the Holy Ghost is the eternal Jehovah For that which Jehovah saith there The Spirit is sâ—d to witness or testify here Therefore seeing it 's the Spirit that testifieth and upon Record the thing testified must needs be of infallible and undeniable Truth 2. The matter of the Text alledged is a Promise and it is two-fold 1. Of putting God's Laws in our hearts that we may believe and be converted 2. The Remission of our Sins upon our Faith and Conversion The first is done by illumination and inspiration whereby that word concerning Christ and Salvation which we hear is made effectual and the power of the Spirit is added to work Faith by that word in our hearts to make us capable of Remission The second is done by the Sentence of the Supream Judge absolving us The first is referred to Vocation The second to Justification And here we must observe what the Apostle's intention is which will appear in The third thing which is the Apostle's Application in ver 18. 1. The difference between the second Allegation of the same Text here and in Chapter 8th is That there he proves the excellency of the Covenant above the former Covenant from the excellency of the promises but here he proves the excellency of Christ's one offering above all the offerings of the Law because by virtue of it Sins are taken away which implies that the mercies promised in the New Covenant were merited by this Sacrifice and that in respect of this Sacrifice offered he was the Mediatour of this Covenant so that without it those promises had been never made or if they had been made they never had beeneffectual and beneficial unto sinful Man For in consideration of this offering God made these promises and for Christ's sake offering himself once he gives the things promised to such as are capable of them according to the Tenour of the Covenant 2. He singles out the latter promise of Remission as most pertinent to the point in hand for though the former promise be excellent and the thing promised necessary for to enable Man to keep the Covenant yet it is but subordinate to this second promise because if the Covenant be not kept there can be no remission neither is there any keeping of the Covenant except God's Laws be written in man's heart as well as in the Scripture outwardly 3. He puts an Emphasis upon the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Hebrew Text and the double negative in the Greek which imports That he will in no wise remember out Sins any more he will forgive them for ever 4. From hence he draws this conclusion there is no more offering for Sin 5. And from thence that Christ's Sacrifice was of that excellent virtue that by one offering it took away Sin all Sin and made it eternally Remissible and upon Faith eternally to be remitted So that the substance of the Doctrinal part of this Chapter is to demonstrate the inefficacy of the many Legal Offerings and the Efficacy of Christ's one Offering And all this tends to this end to inform us 1. That Legal Offerings cannot help and save us 2. That Christ's can 3. That Christ's is far more excellent and absolutely necessary And the Comparison therefore is in respect of the expiating power and vertue of both which of the one is little or none of the other is very great and sufficient for our Salvation and eternal happinesse And this Doctrine is full of heavenly Comfort to humble penitent and believing Sinners for by this Offering though our Sins be many and hainous yet they are all eternally pardoneâ— and we for ever consecrated § 15. The Apostle having finished his Doctrine of Christ's Priest-hood begins here to apply the same and that by way of Exhortation to certain Duties which they were bound to perform by vertue of God's Command and that Faith in Christ they did profess The former Doctrine did serve to inform their Understanding more fully and to improve and confirm their Faith the Exhortations following tended to stir up the heart informed by the Understanding and directed by Faith to the performance of other Duties necessary to the attainment of that eternal life which Christ had merited for them This is the second part of this Chapter and almost of the whole Epistle for the Connexion will make it appear to be so if we either consider the matter or manner For the matter we find that these words are joyned with the antecedent Doctrine concerning the Excellency of Christ both as Prophet and Priest and so it 's the second part of the whole which is 1. Doctrinal 2. Practical For the former part is didascalical this latter protreptical and more practical But if we consider the immediate Connexion then it will appear that it 's in a more special manner joyned with the Doctrine of Christ's Priest-hood continued from the fifth Chapter to this place and the first Application following as the last Chap. 13. doth more especially respect Christ's Priest-hood The manner of the Connexion is evident from the Illative Therefore which signifies that the Exhortations are so many Conclusions deduced from the former Doctrine especially that of Christ's Priest-hood The principal Duty exhorted unto and urged by many and powerful Arguments is Perseverance in the Christian Faith which they did profess Yet he exhorts unto many other which should alwayes accompany sincere Faith and are not separable from it These things premised it 's time to enter upon the Text as delivered Ver. 19. Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Christ Ver. 20. By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Veil that is to say his Flesh Ver. 21. And having an High-Priest over the House of God THE Method of
Power of God piercing the Understanding enables it to understand and know and believe such things which otherwise could not be understood known and believed Yet this Assent may be moral and probable or divine here is meant a divine Assent which without the Power of the Spirit cannot be in â—he heart of Man Thus by Faith and not by Reason we understand how the World was made that it was not eternal that the Wisdom and Power of God was wonderfully manifested in that glorious Work § 6. These things premised the Apostle enters upon his Argument from Examples which are set forth according to the order of time 1. By a particular Enumeration 2. By Accumulation He might have instanced in far more but these were the most eminent and for number sufficient for his purpose He begins with Abel who Ver. 4. By Faith offered unto God a more excellent Sacrifice than Kain by which he obtained Witness that he was righteous God testifying of his Gifts And by it he being dead yet speaketh YOU must here observe that one thing wherein all these Saints und Worthies do agree was Faith 2. That this Faith is the principal thing to be noted in them all 3. His End is by a kind of Induction to prove the excellency and necessity of Faith 4. That according to the History of the Old Testament which he makes his Rule Abel is the first most eminent Person in whom he thought good to instance For as Stephen was though not the first Sufferer yet the Proto-Martyr of the New Testament so Abel was the Proto-Martyr of the Old and was the first Man who after the Creation and the Fall suffered death and sealed the Truth of God with his Blood And though his Father Adam and his Mother Eve had Faith yet the Scriptures do not relate unto us any special and eminent Work of their Faith so that there was no Example of eminency in Faith before him For seeing by Faith we believe the Creation of the World and the Fall of the first Man who was his Father by whom Sin came into the World there could not be any before him so near the beginning of the World so fit for Example Of this Abel two things are related 1. His Vertue 2. His Reward His Vertue in general was Faith manifesting it self in his excellent Sacrifice His Reward God's Testimony of him and his perpetual Fame The words may be reduced to three Propositions 1. That Abel by Faith offered a more excellent Sacrifice than â—ain 2. By this he obtained Witness that he was righteous God testifying of his Gifts 3. By this he being dead yet speaketh or is spoken of In the first Divine Axiom we may observe 1. That he offered Sacrifice to God 2. This Sacrifice was more excellent than that of Kain 3. That he offered this so excellent a Sacrifice by Faith 1. To offer Sacrifice was a religious Worship and may be considered as Moral Positive * Ceremonial As offered unto God in acknowledgment of his Supream Dominion it 's Moral so is the Gift and Offering of some part of our Goods for pious Uses and Maintenance of his Worship As it was a part of God's outward Worship depending only upon Divine Institution it was Positive As this Sacrifice signified a far greater Sacrifice to come it was Ceremonial For after Man had sinned besides the Confession and Amendment of the Sinner Satisfaction to God's Justice by a Sacrifice was required That this was Typically an explatory Sacrifice for Sin seems to be implied by the thing sacrificed which was of the Flock which must be slain and the Blood shed as though for compensation Life was given for Life and Blood for Blood so that this was a Shadow of Christ's Death and Offering This Sacrifice was offered unto the true and living God and not unto Idols and this according to the first Commandment For no Worship or Service Religious is due to any but to God who alone is Supream Lord and to whom alone the highest degree of honour is to be given Yet all these bloody Sacrifices began to be out of date upon the Death and Resurrection of Christ and now only the spiritual Sacrifices of an humble broken Spirit of Praise of Prayer of Thanksgiving and such like continue in force 2. This Sacrifice was more excellent than that of Kain This Kain was his Elder Brother He offered and Abel offered too They both offered unto the same eternal and universal Lord. The marter of his Offering was according to his outward Profession and Imployment of the fruits of the Earth and besides the difference in the matter there was a great Inequality For Abel's compared to his was far more excellent and acceptable Here we might take occasion to consider 1. Adam's care in the Education of his Children to fit them not only for the matters of this Life but for Religion and the World to come 2. That two Persons may worship God with the same kind of Worship and yet differ very much in the manner of their Service 3. This more excellent Sacrifice was offered by Faith and this Faith did make it so excellent For it was not the matter offered but the Qualification of the Person and his manner of Offering that gave the worth unto the Sacrifice and made it more precious Kain offers without Faith sincere and lively his Offering is base Abel offers with Faith his Offering is excellent and of great value This Faith is the Soul of all Religious Worship and here the principal thing to be observed is that Faith was the Principle which did animate and honour this piece of Service § 7. The Reward follows and it is a good Report 1. In his life-time 2. After death 1. In his life-time For 1. It was testified of him that he was righteous 2. This was done by God testifying of his Gifts 1. He was righteous for so our Saviour terms him speaking of the Blood of righteous Abel Mat. 23. 35. He was righteous not without all Sin for such no Man after the Fall ever was yet he was without Wickedness He was upright and his Faith was sincere and his Worship of God and his Obedience were without Hypocrisy He was justified and sanctified and continued in the State of Justification and Sanctification and in such a manner as that he may be said to be eminently righteous This Righteousness was not by Nature but Grace not by his deserts but by the merit of Christ and the mercy of God As he was righteous so he was manifested to be so and it was testified to his comfort and honour 2. It was God who testified of his Righteousness by testifying of his Gifts His Gifts were his Sacrifices offered to God these God did accept and some wayes signified his acceptation both of the Person and his Offering In Gen. 4. 45. we read thus And the Lord had respect to Abel and to his Offering But unto Cain and his Offering he had
imprinted there more perfectly Yet the word turned Laws signifies in the Hebrew Doctrines And these are the Doctrines of the Gospel concerning Christ's Person Nature Offices and the Work of Redemption the Doctrines of Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and eternal Life and these either presuppose or include the Moral Law For they must be such Truths as are necessary and effectual to Man's Salvation without the Knowledge and practice whereof sinful Man cannot attain eternal Life Further they are Doctrines concerning Christ as already exhibited glorified reigning and officiating in Heaven 2. The Book or Tables wherein they must be written are the mind and heart of Man By Mind some conceive is meant the Understanding and by Heart the Will and rational Appetite But by both words are meant the immortal Soul endued with a Power to understand and will or nill that which is understood The word in the Hebrew turned by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind and intellective Faculty signifieth the inward parts because as the heart and reins are the inmost parts of the Body so the mind thoughts and rational Appetite are intima Anime the inmost parts if we may so speak of the Soul They are as it were the Center of that immortal Substance where all the active vigour and powers of the Soul are united There is the Spring and Original of all rational and moral Operations of all thoughts affections and inward Motions There is the directive Counsel and imperial commanding Power There is the prime Mover of all humane Actions as such This is the Subject fit to receive not only natural but supernatural Truths and Doctrines and all Laws There divine Characters may be imprinted and made legible to the Soul it self This is the most noble and excellent Book that any can write in This is an Allusion to the Tables of Stone wherein the Law was written for the Law was not written in the heart but in stone upon Phylacteries Frontlets Posts and Walls of their Houses And now the Scriptures and divine Revelations are written in Books so as that they are legible by the Eye they may be spoken and so uttered by Man as to be perceived by the Ear and from these be conveyed to the common sense and fancy and by degree be transmitted to the Soul which by them receives some imperfect representations not informations This immortal Soul is the Book or Table wherein these Laws and divine Doctrines must be written 3. The Scribe or Pen-man is God for it 's said I will give or put I will write He that said so was the Lord And it must be He because the Work is so curious and excellent that it 's far above the Sphere of created activity He alone can immediately work upon the immortal Soul to inform it move it alter it and mould it anew so as neither Man or Angel can do They may by the outward senses and the fancy come near the Soul but immediately prepare it and make lively Impressions and write clear Characters of divine Truth upon it they cannot They may move it and affect or disaffect it yet to take away the stony heart and make an heart of Flesh is far above their Power Therefore God doth alwayes ascribe this great Work unto himself 4. The Act and Work of this Pen-man is to write and write these Laws and write them in the heart How he doth it we know not That he doth it is clear enough His preparations illuminations impulsions inspirations are strange and wonderful of great and mighty force For in this Work he doth not onely represent divine Objects in a clearer light and propose high Motives to incline and turn the heart but also gives a divine perceptive and appetitive Power whereby the Soul more easily and clearly apprehends and more effectually affects heavenly things The Effect of this Writing is a divine Knowledge of God's Laws and a ready and willing heart to obey them and conform unto them a Power to know and do the Word of God This is that Work of the Spirit which is called Vocation Renovation Regeneration Conversion actively taken without which Man cannot repent believe obey and turn to God It 's said to be a quickning of Man dead in sin a putting God's fear in Man's heart a putting God's Spirit within Man to cause him to obey his Laws a calling out of Darkness into Light a writing upon the fleshy Tables of Man's heart By this writing Man is said to have a new Heart and Spirit not that God creates in Man a new Soul or new Faculties but because he gives new Power new Light new Life new Qualifications so that Man is made partaker of a divine Nature and moulded anew with so much alteration that he is another Man though not for Substance yet for Qualities and Operations All this tends to an imperfect explication of this Promise wherein this new Covenant differs from and is more excellent than the former For that had no Promise of God's writing his Laws and Doctrines in Man's heart or of giving any sanctifying or renewing Power to enable them to observe and keep his Judgments Yet lest we mistake this excellent and most comfortable part of Scripture many things are to be observed 1. Concerning the Laws 2. Concerning the heart 3. Concerning God's writing in the heart 1. The Laws the Laws of God are written in the heart not the inventions fancies of men nor natural nor mathematical nor moral Philosophy much less the Errors and Blasphemies of Seducers and false Prophets It 's true that humane Learning and Languages are excellent means to find out the sense of the Scriptures and are great Blessings ordained of God for that end and being used with Prayer and sanctified may do much Yet we must know that these Doctrines are not only those of the Moral Law but these high Mysteries concerning Christ the Redemption Repentance Faith Justification Resurrection and the eternal Punishments and Rewards in the World to come as they are revealed in the Gospel For the matter and subject of them is God's Kingdom and the Government of God-Redeemer ordering Man to his final and eternal estate as I have manifested in another Treatise 2. The heart of Man is by Nature a very untoward and indisposed Subject and not capable of these heavenly Doctrines It 's blind and perverse and there is an Antipathy between it and these Laws It hath some little parcels of the Law of Nature written in it but not any thing of these heavenly and evangelical Truths it neither knows them nor can relish them And when they are represented unto it yet it hath no intellective Power to understand them nor any Will or Desire to seek them or inclination to obey the Laws of God which direct unto everlasting life It 's not only ignorant but filthily blotted and blurred with Errours both in matters of Religion and humane Conversation And this is the condition not only of Heathens
Antecedent And this is a certain Rule that if the Antecedent be true the Consequent is so too The Connexion is not natural but depends upon divine Ordination who hath determined in general that Punishment shall follow upon Sin and in particular that final Perdition shall follow upon Apostacy This is part of the Text which the Apostle alledgeth out of Habakkuk and therefore the Original is Hebrew And this gives occasion to consider the difference of the Translations the Vulgar Junius Vatablus the Divines of Zurick following him and our English differ amongst themselvs in translating the Hebrew and the Septuagint which the Apostle follows seems to differ much from all the Rest. Besides the Hebrew Copy which they turned did not agree with these of latter times This difference will appear in the Explication of particulars which are two 1. Apostacy 2. God's Displeasure 1. The Apostacy which is signified by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is said to be Pride so some to be Unbelief so others to be a Lifting up so our English to be a drawing back so the Septuagint These may be reconciled for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to fear and out of fear to hide ones self and also to remit and abate of our former Boldness and Courage this signification agrees well enough with the Arabick signification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gafal which some tells is to hide or neglect For all Apostacy issues from fear and a Remission of our more intensive Courage in time of Persecution so as to yield basely and cowardly unto our Enemy whom we might have resisted and overcome This drawing back is an Unbelief after Belief and Profession of our Faith And it may and sometimes doth proceed from Pride which will not suffer the heart to submit unto the Will of God and depend upon that Righteousness which is by Faith it will scorn to bear the Cross of Christ and it will despise the Promises and Comminations of the Gospel Yet it may issue from other Causes 2. The Punishment is expressed in these words My Soul shall have no pleasure in him In our present Hebrew Copies we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Soul whereas the Septuagint read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My Soul To change the Affix Jod into Vau was an Errour easily committed in the Transcription By Soul therefore is not meant the Soul of the Apostate but of God and the Soul of God is God who is only Soul and Spirit and hath no Body Of God it 's said He will have no pleasure in the Apostate which is a Meiosis and signifies He will be highly displeased with him The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated to be upright doth signify also to please so the Septuagint divers time do turn it and I know no Reason why the Translatour should vary from them especially in Habakkuk By this Phrase is declared God's high displeasure against them for their Sin for as their Sin was high and hainous so was his Displeasure who would punish them severely that the penalty might be proportioned and made adequate to their Sin So in these words the words of God we find the Arguments both à Praemio Poena briefly contracted § 41. Yet lest the Hebrews should think that the Apostle had conceived some Jealousy and Suspicion of an Inclination in them to Apostacy he as in the sixth Chapter prevents all such thoughts by these words following Ver. 39. But we are not of them which draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the Soul THis is an Application of the former Doctrine delivered in general to Paul and these Hebrews in particular There is little need of Explication for the words are easily understood from that which went before For to draw back is Apostacy and Perdition is utter Destruction which issues from the Displeasure and severe Justice of God To believe is the Duty Salvation of the Soul the Reward and to believe unto the Salvation of the Soul is to persevere in Faith unto the End and the full Possession of eternal Glory By these words we learn 1. To have a charitable conceit of Professors when we see and know nothing contrary to sincerity 2. To examine and thoroughly search our hearts that we may more clearly understand our spiritual condition Whether it be good or bad Whether our Faith be sincere and our Profession real or no Whether we tend unto Perdition or Salvation 3. They imply a secret Exhortation to Perseverance and a Dehortation from Apostacy upon the two main and principal Reasons of Perdition and Salvation 4. They serve for Comfort for to have a certain Knowledg of our Sincerity Constancy and Performance of our Duty and the Conditions of the Covenant is a Ground of great Joy and Comfort in the midst of our Afflictions and Tribulations for upon this Knowledg we are assured that God doth love us we are freed from the danger of Damnation have a firm Title unto everlasting Glory and all things shall work together for our good And happy we if we can truly say as here the Apostle doth We are not of them who draw back unto Perdition but of them who believe unto the Salvation of the Soul The Sum and Substance of the whole Chapter is 1. The Doctrine of the Excellency and Efficacy of Christ's Sacrifice which once offered doth consecrate the sanctified for ever 2. Exhortation to several Duties and especially to the principal which is Perseverance which is urged upon them by severall Arguments especially that of the fearful Punishment of Apostates and the glorius Reward of Perseverance CHAP. XI Concerning the excellency of Faith exemplisied in the Saints of former times § 1. THE Connexion of this Chapter with the former the Scope and Method are obvious and easily understood by the observant and considerate Reader 1. The Connexion is this the Apostle continues his Discourse concerning Faith and Profession and Perseverance in them unto Life Salvation and the receiving of the great Reward and his Exhortation unto Perseverance So that they agree in the same subject matter 2. The Scope is by a new Argument to stir them up unto continuance in the Exercise of this heavenly vertue 3. The Method is easily perceived by the Disposition of the parts which are 1. A Description of Faith Ver. 1. 2. An Instance in two general Effects Ver. 2 3. 3. An enumeration of many Saints and Worthies of former times who by this Faith did suffer grievous Afflictions did rare Exploits and obtained many great Blessings These Saints are represented unto us as marshalled and set in Array according to the times wherein they lived and 1. Some are expressed by Name 2. Some are not named at all Of such as are named 1. Some are honoured with the Testimony of the rare Acts and Effects of their Faith related in particular out of the Scriptures 2. Some are only named and the Effects of their Faith
were Canaanites so that they were but Heirs in Reversion This seemed good to divine Wisdom 1. Because the Sins of that People were not tipe 2. Abraham's Posterity was not yet sufficiently numerous to take Possession of that Land and to husband it Abraham with Isaac and Jacob though Heirs of this Land did but sojourn in it as in a strange Country dwelling in Tabernacles This is the second Proposition wherein we have 1. The Place or Country 2. Their Pilgrimage in it 1. The Place or Country was a certain Land It was not their native Soil but it was to them a strange Country it was the Land of Promise that is that Land which God had promised them and whereof by vertue of this Promise they were Heirs and it was an excellent Land far too good for that wicked People which did inhabit and possess it It 's said to be a pleasant Land a Land flowing with Milk and Honey 2. Their Pilgrimage in this Land is signified 1. In this that the place was to them a strange Country in opposition to their native Soil which was ur of the Chaldees beyond the River Euphrates out of which God had called Abraham 2. In that they had no fixed habitation in that strange place but dwelt in Tabernacles or Yents which were removable 3. In that they did but sojourn in this Land though they were Heirs of it So that they were not Cives either natural or naturalized and incorporated into any State neither were they Incolae because they had no fixed habitation in Canaan They were only Peregrini Pilgrims and as such they could have no Priviledges as other free Persons had Neither did they purchase any hereditary Estates except a burying place not did they build any House Town or City They had indeed some Confederates and abode in some places longer than in others Stephen tells us that God gave Abraham no Inheritance in that Land no not so much as to ser his foot on Act. 7. 5. This was so ordered by divine special Providence to teach them that though they were in the World yet they were not of the World and that they should remember that as they were born from Heaven so their native and hereditary Country was Heaven For when we once return unto our God we renounce the World and account our selvs but Strangers in it But of this more hereafter The next thing is their Faith for by Faith they thus sojourned and were content to be Pilgrims in a strange Land In this Peregrination of theirs we have an Act of their Faith whereby they understood and did affuredly believe that they had no abiding City on Earth and that they were of no Association in this World For they believed the Word of God which informed them that as there was no rest so there was no content in this World It was but a strange place where they must stay a little while pass thorow it to a better Country and that all Inhabitants thereof not born from Heaven were Strangers to them with whom they must have no spiritual Society This by Faith they did believe and out of this Belief did wean their hearts from this World as from a place of vanity misery and discomfort There was another Act of Faith whereby they did rely upon God's Promise and the Effect of this was a patient waiting for the Possession of the inheritance § 13. The second thing in the Text is their expectation of a better Country The words inform us 1. Of a City 2. Of their expectation of it by Faith 1. The City is described from the stability and the Builder thereof A City is sometimes taken for a place of habitation consisting in the vicinity of many Houses For multitude and vicinity of Buildings do commonly make a City in this sense Sometimes it 's taken for a Political Society and Community which if it be reduced under one Supream governing Power is called a Common-wealth Sometimes it 's taken for the condition and estate of these Societies In this place the word City must be taken spiritually for such a kind of Habitation Society and Estate for all these may be here meant as is not found in this World for it signifies the Habitation of Heaven the Society of Saints and Angels and the perfect peace and eternal happiness of this Society in that place Therefore is it said 1. To have Foundations which is the stability thereof and to signify the Excellency thereof 2. It 's said that God is the Builder and Maker of it 1. It hath Foundations for nothing can be firm which is not firmly fixed upon an immoveable Ground To signify the firmness and eternal stability of this City it 's said to have Foundations that is a most firm and immovable Foundation This doth difference it from Tabernacles and Tents and also from all other Buildings Habitations Societies States Kingdoms and their Prosperity For they are infirm movable obnoxious to change decay and ruine Experience doth sufficiently prove this by the ruine of so many Castles Palaces Cities Societies States and Kingdoms which have flourished in great Splendor Power and Strength yet now lye in the Dust and do not appear This City is no such thing but the place of abode the persons and their felicity endure for ever 2. The Builder and Maker is God All other Cities Societies and their Condition is from men but in this Man hath no hand at all for God is Artifex Opifex he contrived it he made it according to the Model contrived by himself These words are added to inform us 1. That it was so far above the Art and Power of Man that only God could make it He was not only the principal but the sole Efficient of it 2. That it was most excellent and far above all other Cities of the World for firmness duration beauty and felicity for the peace pleasures and felicity of it are full and everlasting 2. The next thing is Abraham's expectation of this City by Faith This looking for or expectation includes many things as 1. He had a Title to it by vertue of Gods Promise and his Qualification and this was not a meer Title but something more For theâ—e was a time limited in the grant of the full enjoyment and he had received the first-fruits of Glory 2. He desired and longed after the enjoyment of this City far more than for any thing in this World 3. These desires were very effectual and working upon his Soul and stirred him to seek this City and constantly to use all means appointed by God for to attain it and the whole course of his life was a continued Motion and an Approach towards this eternal Rest and glorious Estate 4. The actual Possession of this blessed Estate was deferred yet he with Patience did wait for it and made no doubt but to 〈◊〉 that which he so much desired And here it 's to be observed 1. That no man can
enlarge but also polish his Discourse and excellently set forth their Faith and the forenamed Effects thereof The whole is an excellent Testimony of the three eminent Patriarchs and therein we have 1. The Duty they performed 2. God's owning them and expressing his dear Affection towards them The first of these is continued from the beginning of Ver. 13. to the latter end of the 16th in the last words whereof we have the second thing here observed Their Duty and the Performance thereof may be reduced to certain Propositions 1. These all not receiving the Promises dyed in the Faith Of which two parts 1. Their not receiving the Promises 2. Their dying in the Faith though they received them not 1. They received not the Promises Where by Promises understand the things promised For otherwise it cannot be true because it 's certain that Promises were made unto them they knew them and received them by Faith But the things promised were neither given nor received till long after and these are reduced to four heads which be these 1. A numerous Posterity 2. The Land of Canaan 3. The Incarnation and Exhibition of Christ. 4. The Resurrection to eternal Glory The parties here meant are Abraham Isaac and Jacob not any named before nor any mentioned after these Three for they were the Persons who came from beyond the River Euphrates who sojourned in the Land of Canaan who dwelt in Tabernacles Of these it 's said that they received not the things promised For neither was their Posterity made as yet so numerous nor had they any hereditary Possession of the Land of Canaan nor did they see Christ in the Flesh or hear the Gospel for that followed about 2000 years after the Promises were first made nor did they attain the Resurrection and Immortality 2. Yet they dyed even all of them in the Faith Which words signify 1. They did believe 2. Continued firm in the Faith unto the end though they received not the Promises The meaning is they not only lived but dyed Believers delay and non-enjoyment did not break their hearts neither could Death it self when they might perhaps be put to the greatest Conflict separate their Souls and their Faith though it separated their Souls and their Bodies For this divine vertue was deeply rooted and fastned in them and was immortal as their better part was and followed the Soul into another World Death might bereave them of their Friends and their temporal Estates and all their earthly Comforts but of Faith it could not And it 's to be noted that not only one but all of them dyed in the Faith These were rare Patterns of Perseverance in this rare and incomparable vertue of Faith The second Proposition is That seeing them afar off they were perswaded of them and embraced them This should not have been a distinct Proposition for it's part of the former and added to those words not receiving the Promises And it 's somewhat observable that the word perswaded is wanting in several Manuscripts They received them not but 1. Saw them afar off For they were distant and to come and not to be accomplished or enjoyed in their dayes and some of them were more distant from their times than others some were nearer The principal which were the Exhibition of Christ and the universal Resurrection stood at the most remote distance of time from them Yet these they saw for divine Revelation as a celestial Light did represent them unto them the Promise did signify they had a Right unto them and part in them And as by this divine Light they were manifested unto them so by the Eye of Faith which is the spiritual visive Faculty of the Soul they saw them as they were represented that is at a distance For Faith can see beyond and above the World and hath some glimmering or imperfect sight of Eternity 2. They were perswaded of them and assured that in God's good time which was the sittest they should be fulfilled The Revelation and Promise was a sure Ground of this Perswasion and the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things not seen 3. They embraced them the word signifies to salute to draw near to rejoyce to embrace for in saluting dearest friends we draw near unto them embrace them rejoyce to seethem Some think the word here is Metaphorical and the Expression taken from such as after a long and tedious Voyage at Sea come within ken of Land and discover their own dearest Country where they expect to abide and rest For so soon as they discover and have sight of their own dear native Soil they wonderfully rejoice and begin with joyful Acclamations to say Land Land Land Haven Haven Haven now Rest and Safety are near So it 's certain that these Saints and heavenly Worthies drawing near their end beheld these excellent Blessings and especially their Saviour and their heavenly Country and being sure of the futurition and enjoyment of them rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Our Saviour saith thus Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8. 56. When Abraham lived the day of Christ's Incarnation and the blessed Redemption of sinful Man was to come and afar off Yet Abraham by Faith saw that day and seeing it though not near or so clearly he was glad and rejoyced wonderfully And now our Faith and Hope of eternal Glory though afar off is a Cause of unspeakable Joy The third Proposition They confessing themselvs Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth declared plainly that they sought a Country Here we may consider 1. What they did express 2. What they did imply 1. The thing expressed is That they were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth For 1. They were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth 2. They did openly confess this 1. They were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth That they did so journ in the Land of promise as in a strange Country you heard before yet they sojourned not only there but in other places as in Gerar and Aegypt and for the whole time of their mortal Life they were Pilgrims and Strangers on Earth and could not be said to be Free-men Denizons or Members of any Community or Commonwealth in the World But they might be such either Politically or Spiritually and they were in both respects such for Man being immortal should provide for some place of perpetual Abode and many thinking only of their Settlement on Earth and of perpetuating themselves and their Names in their Posterity by successive Generations look no higher than this World If these travel out of their native Country they must needs be Strangers in all Forreign States if not naturalized in some of them As for these Patriarchs they had forsaken their own Country out of which God had called them and lost all their native and birth-right Priviledges yet they did not seek to settle themselvs in any other part of the Earth neither did they incorporate with any other People in the
it seems grow upon the banks and also the Sea of Edom and because Edom signifies Red therefore it 's named the Red-Sea as the Septuaginâ—turns the proper substantive into an appellative 2. Pharoah and the Egyptians pursue them into the Sea and so were drowned This was ordered by the wisdom of God and was the execution of his just Judgment While way is made for Israel to pass the inconsistency and fluid nature of the Waters is suspended that the Egyptians following after the Israelies might enter into the heart and depth of the Channel Yet in the mean time the Angel of God continues to keep between Israel and Pharoah's Army till such time as all the People were safely landed and to retard the march of the Horse takes off their Chariot Wheels so that they drove heavily When Israel was past all danger God suffers the Waters to return to their former Course and so they overwhelm Pharoah and all his Host who sunk like lead into the bottom of the Sea and this was done in the sight of Israel that they might rejoyce and give glory unto God for their Salvation and the destruction of their Enemies This was a wonderful deliverance of God's People and the end of a proud and cruel Tyrant 3. The reason of the one was Faith of the other Unbelief For by Faith they found a way through the great deep And this was not the Faith of Israel alone but principally of Moses For it might truly be said They passed through the Sea by his Faith yet joyned with their's For God commanded Moses with his Rod to smite the Sea and Israel to pass on and promised to divide the Sea and save them not only from the Waters but from their Enemies This Moses did believe and perswades them to do so likewise and this Faith moved them to obey God's Command and upon their Obedience to expect the Mercy promised Without this Warrant and Word from Heaven and their belief of it and confidence in it it had been impossible for them to have escaped destruction The Egyptians assaying without this Faith to passe were drowned Pride cruelty desire of revenge drove them forward they had neither Revelation nor Command nor Promise and therefore they perished This example informs us 1. That there is no danger so great but God can deliver us out of it for God hath many wayes to deliver us 2. That when man's danger is the greatest God's help is the nearest For as the saying is Man's Extremity is God's Opportunity For he is a present help in time of trouble in the midst of the Waters and in the fiery Furnace 3. Many times the Salvation of God's People is the destruction of their Enemies and when he saves the one he destroyes the other and there will a day come when all God's People shall see their desire upon all their Enemies Yet we must believe and obey and trust in God and have a just Cause if we will expect deliverance and he that doth not so believe as to be ready to do what God Commands can never attain the benefit God doth promise which is so limited and consined to the performance of the Command upon Faith that without Performance and Obedience the Mercy promised cannot be expected and received This is the true reason why justifying Faith is inconsistent with the predominancy of any Lust and Sin For true Faith receives the Promise with the terms and conditions it requireth and whosoever believes or is perswaded that he may receive the Blessing promised without obedience to the Command annexed doth deceive himself For he that continuing in his sins not resolving from his heart to forsake them to renounce all righteousness in himself to rely wholly and solely upon the merit of Christ and mercy of God perswades himself of Remission promised doth mistake the Promise and shall not obtain that which he desires For his Faith is not sincere his confidence is but presumption and the issue will be shame and confusion This Doctrine also ministreth unspeakable comfort to all true Believers in the midst of their Extremities § 29. Joshua succeeded Moses and he by Faith did many glorious works one whereof the Apostle singleth out and instanceth in which was the fall of the walls Jericho For Ver. 30. By Faith the Walls of Jericho fell after they were compassed about seven times THis work was miraculous and is ascribed to Faith in God's Word The whole History here abridged by the Apostle we may read at large Joshua 6. Upon which as upon the rest of that Book Masuis doth excellently discourse In the words as in the former examples we may observe 1. The Work 2. The Faith whereby it was done In the Work as it 's briefly here expressed we may consider 1. What it was The fall of the Walls of Jericho 2. The means whereby it was done and that was by compassing them about seven times 3. The time When they had seven times compassed them But if we consider the History the principal things remarkable are 1. The Command and Instructions of God given to Joshua and the People 2. God's Promise 3. Their Obedience 4. The Issue or Event 1. God's Command was signified to Joshua and by Joshua to Israd and in general it was to compass about Jericho which was the first City of Canaan on this West side of Jordan which God gave into their hand and in such a manner as that it might encourage his Pecple and strike a terrour into the rest of their Enemies and let them know what to expect It was not very great yet strong For the manner how often in what order with what rites when to begin when to end they received Instructions and Directions and they were bound to follow them For we must not only do the thing God Commands but we must do it in that manner as he shall prescribe 2. God's Promise was in general to deliver it into their Hands and in that manner as that there should be no formal Siege or effusion of Blood This was a miraculous and extraordinary way which he did prescribe unto them and in it self very unlikely to take effect for there seemed to be no causality in the means not any power in them for to produce the effect Therefore a Promise of God was necessary that so they might have a ground of their Faith an encouragement to use the means and upon the use a certain expectation of the event Neither would the Promise of any other but of God serve the turn yet seeing they had had so much experience of his wonderful and almighty power it was sufficient and there was no cause of doubting 3. Seeing God had promised and they believed therefore they obey his Command readily and chearfully use the means and follow his Directions and compass the City in that manner and so often as God required This obedience to the Enemies who were ignorant both of God's Command and Promise might seem
sixth seventh eight ninth and part of the tenth Chapter The test of the Epistle from the 15th verse of the tenth unto the end is chiefly exhortation to continue in the profession of that Faith in Christ their only Prophet and their only Priest and a life sutable to this profession as the only way and means whereby they may obtain eternal Salvation For no other kind of profession and life could serve them yet in all this you must understand that the divine Authour with his reasons whereby he demonstrates the excellency and sufficiency of Christ doth intermix exhortations motives reproofs and sometimes digressions yet all to good purpose so that no part or parcel is impertinent The reason why I pitched upon this Epistle is 1. Because in it we find more of Christ's propheticall and especially of his sacerdotal Office then in all the Scriptures besides 2. To clear it from the false Glosses of Crellius who seeks to elude those places which so clearly contradict their Socinian Errours especially in the Deity and Satisfaction of Christ. And this I do the rather because his Book is translated and speak Socinianism in English and goes abroad under the â—â—me of Dr. Lushington for though we find not his name in the Book printed yet he is charged with the Translation and making it publick Whether it be a meer Translation I cannot say because I have not seen Crellius § 2. To enter upon the first part which is concerning Christ's prophetical Office we must observe that the substance of the first four Chapters is reduced to two Propositions The first is That Christ is a Prophet more excellent then the former Prophets then Angels then Moses The second That therefore he must be heard The first is the Doctrine the second the use That he is far above the former Prophets and the Angels is proved in the first Chapter The Use is to hearken unto him in the second where we have a digression in the third he is proved to be more excellent then Moses The Use is an Exhortation to hearken unto him and believe him the reason is lest as the Israelites hardning their hearts were overthrown in the Wildernesse So we not believing Christ never attain our eternal Sabbatism or Rest upon this the Apostle enlargeth in the third and four Chapters His excellency above the former Prophets we may understand in the three first verses above the Angels in the rest of the Chapter So that the Propositions of this first Chapter are two First That Christ is more excellent then the Prophets Secondly Christ is more excellent then the Angels To understand the first Proposition we must note that the excellency of one above another cannot be known except they be compared and laid together Therefore the Apostle though he do not expresse it yet implyes a Comparison which is in quantity and presupposeth a former in quality That in quality is this That as the holy men of Old were excellent so is Christ they are excellent he is excellent both are excellent That in quantity is That though they were excellent yet he is more yea far more excellent The meaning whereof is that 1. They are compared as Prophets for they were Prophets and so Christ is a Prophet 2. Christ is a more excellent Prophet not only the party prophesying is more excellent but also as a Prophet or in respect of his propheticall Office and the exercise thereof § 3. God who at sundry times c. ver 1. Before we can understand that Christ is more excellent then the Prophets we must know 1. Who those Prophets were 2. Who Christ is Therefore the Apostle gives us here 1. A description of the Prophets ver 1. 2. Of Christ ver 2 3. The former Prophets are described to be men by whom God spake unto the Fathers at sundry times and in divers manners or ways This implyes that a Prophet is one by whom God speaks to men and because God spake to men by them and also by Christ therefore both they and Christ are Prophets In prophecy therefore we may consider 1. The matter 2. The form 1. The matter is the mind of God infallibly made known to Man or Angel here to Man 2. The form is the infallible declaration unto Man of this mind of God first infallibly known The mind of God is Something contrived by his Wisdom and decreed by his will concerning Man as subject to his Power and ordinable to an estate of happinesse or misery 2. This is represented unto Man apprehended by Man and both infallible so that he hath a more certain and infallible knowledg of the thing revealed The form thereof is an infallible declaration of thi mind of God known infallibly It may be declared to others by Word Writing Both and this declaration also must be infallible or else God doth not speak by them For because that God is true and necessarily true therefore his Word is necessarily true Hence the Divine authority and absolute Truth of the Scriptures because God speaks in them and by them to us and for this reason are they â—â—â—â—ed The Word of God God speaks to Men immediately mediately by men infallible and inspired falllble not inspired He spake immediately and at the first hand to the Prophets mediately by the Prophets at the second hand at the third hand by such as understand and teach the Doctrine of the Scriptures A Prophet as receiving his knowledg from God may be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Roâ—h in respect of his declaration and speaking to others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he is but God's Instrument Officer Minister if he prophesy by Word he may be said to be God's mouth if by Writing God's hand or scribe or secretary And because God is the principal Agent upon whom in this work the Prophet totally depends therefore he is said to speak by them God spake by the Prophets § 4. This explication premised doth give us to understand what the Prophets were 〈◊〉 Men by whom God spake unto the Fathers of Old at sundry times in divers 〈◊〉 1. God spake by them and this did make them fit to be Prophets and this may be sâ—id to be the general wherein they agree with Christ For God spake by him and in that respect he was a Prophet 2. In the rest they differ from him and that in four things 1. They spâ—â—e to the Fathers that is their Ancestors who lived formarly in the times of the Prophets 2. They prophesyed of Old in former days before the incarâ—ation and exâ—ibition of Christ. 3. God spake by them to the Fathers at several times â—â— as some 〈◊〉 it in many parts This implyes 1. That the Prophets by whom God spake were 〈◊〉 For the Doctrine of the Old Testament was not either spoken or written by one man but by many 2. That Doctrine was delivered by parts the whole body and systeme was not 〈◊〉 up at once but first one part then
Spirits To be Ministers is 1. To be Servants in general 2. To be Officers and imployed either in sacred or civil Service therefore the word doth signify Priests or Magistrates Yet these are Ministers or Servants in the Court of Heaven under God the Supream Lord of all 3. They are sent forth for as they have their Office so they have their Imployment they are sent forth to Minister They do not go of their own head but have their work designed by God and receive both Direction and Command from him 4. The parties for whose good the Minister are the converted Believers who are designed Heirs of Salvation and eternal Glory For though they be God's Servants yet they serve for the good of his Children and this is their principal work and their happiness is the end of their Service 5. They are all and every one both Servants and also sent forth for this Service the greatest is not exempted This is the absolute consideration of the words The relative as they referr unto the scope of the Apostle is to prove that Christ is more excellent and they inferior to Christ. The force of the argument lyes chiefly in this 1. That they are Ministers and Servants 2. That all of them none excepted are such For all and every of them be Ministers not Lords and Kings then they are inferior to Christ. Nay they all and every one of them are subject to Christ as the Word from the Creation and after Christ as the word incarnate was set at the right hand of God they all were his Servants commanded and sent by him for the promoting of the Salvation of his redeemed ones believing on him So that they are not only Servants but his Servants this Doctrine informs us 1. Of the excellency of Christ advanced in our Nature above the Angels 2. Of the benefit of Believers they are Heirs of Salvation and the Angels the heavenly Spirits must take a special care of them 3. Of our Duty 1. To believe that we may be Heirs of Salvation and enjoy the guardance guidance and protection 2. To be humble Servants unto God to do good to others especially the Houshold of Faith seeing Angels though excellent are humble Servants to Christ for our good This principal matters in this Chapter are several The first is concerning the excellency of the Scriptures wherein God speaks by Prophets and by his own Son 2. The excellency of Christ in respect of the Prophets and the Angels 3. The Nature and Ministry of Angels The Use of this Doctrine follows in the beginning of the next Chapter CHAP. II. Ver. 1. § 1. THis Chapter is an Exhortation to the constant Profession of the Doctrine of the Gospel These words may be considered 1. In that Connexion with and dependence upon the former 2. In themselves The Connexion and Dependence is signified by the illative therefore which implys that the proposition in the first verse is a conclusion inferred from some premisses in the former Chapter wherein the Apostle had not only affirmed and proved that Christ was a Prophet more excellent then the former Prophets but the Angels And if he was so then it follows he must needs be heard and his Doctrine observed which is the substance of the first verse For seeing God speaks by the Prophets and more excellently by Christ therefore Prophets much more Christ are to be heard § 2. This is a Connexion The words themselves we must consider First As an Exhortation And secondly in the same 1. The duty exhorted unto 2. The reasons whereby the performance is urged An exhortation is reducible to a Rhetorick and proper to a deliberative Theme according to Aristotle and Tully ' whose Rules are not meerly Rhetorical but Political and are miscellaneous It presupposeth the party exhorted to know and remember the thing exhorted unto and a perswasion that it 's good especially honest and just The end of it is to move inslame and stir up the Will and Heart of the Auditor to performance This upon the by To proceed we have 1. The matter of the Exhortation or the Duty exhorted unto For the subject of divine Exhortations is some duty possible by the power of Grace to be performed Duty presupposeth a Command of God upon which follows an obligation to performance and a duty is nothing else and is a duty whether performed or not The duty is affirmative or negative So that in the words we have not only an exhortation but a dehortation too yet to speak properly they are but implyed For the Apostle signifies rather that the matter is a duty then exhorts unto it The affirmative is to give the more earnest heed to the things heard the negative not to let them slip yet the former must be done lest the latter which is a Sin should follow The matter of the duty is the things heard that is the Doctrine of Christ the great Prophet and his Apostles as made known and heard by them The act is attention earnest attention the more earnest attention because spoken by Christ more excellent then the Prophets then the Angels This attention is not only a diligent consideration of the things heard but a belief and constant profession joyned with practise and presupposeth the knowledg of them The negative which upon the neglect of the affirmative will follow is not to let them slip Thus it 's translated in our English but with divers Latine Interpreters it's to leak or flow out or aside And here Expositors compare the Soul unto a broken Cistern or torn-Vessel which will not keep any liquid substance powred into it In this sense to let slip seems to be nothing else then to forget But the Sytiack turns it so lest we fall off or from our profession The Septuagint use the Apostles word Prov. 3. 21. where the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luz which signifies not only in that Language but in the Chaldee to depart go back decline from a thing Therefore here the sin we must take heed of is not only to forget the Doctrine of Christ but to fall from the Faith and Profession of it And the reason why they must be so careful is because there was great danger and many temptations which would prove the more effectuall against the careless and the negligent In a word the duty is upon most dillgent attention constantly to believe and profess the Doctrine of Christ and never to recede or fall from it Thus to do is our duty there is a necessity of precept God's Command binds us we ought and the reason is because the Doctrine we have heard is the Doctrine of Christ the Doctrine of God made Man And it was God's Command to hear him the great Prophet upon peril of total Destruction This duty is reducible to the first Commandment evangelically understood and not to hear believe profess the Doctrine of God Redeemer by Christ is a grievous sin there forbidden As the duty
whose House it is is expresse Scripture that Christ doth build it is so too For thus Christ saith to Peter Upon this Rock will I build my Church Matth. 16. 18. Some restrain the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things to the Church but that 's not probable For the better understanding of these words you must observe 1. That one of the most noble Effects and Works of God is the Church a most rare and curious piece 2. That to Frame Build and Constitute this must be a special act of that excellent and universal Builder 3. That as by the Word God created all things and built the World at the first so by this Word Incarnate dying and rising again sending down the Holy Ghost revealing the Gospel he built and founded the Church-Christian which shall stand for ever 4. That because he built this Church not meerly as God by the word not-Incarnate but Incarnate and made Flesh therefore it must necessarily follow that Christ is not part of the House nor the House it self but the Builder of the House For though he doth many things by the word not-Incarnate yet he never built the Church but by it The substance of the words is That presupposing this for a certain truth That every House hath a Builder therefore this House must have so too yet because it cannot be built by Men or Angels it must be built by God and because the materials of it are Men first sinful and guilty God must build it by Christ who is the Word made Flesh. This discourse implyes that Moses was not a Builder but a Member of this House yet an eminent Member and one advanced far above the ordinary ranck of other Members not only because a Prophet but an excellent and eminent Prophet too § 7. Thus far the excellency of Christ above Moses set forth by a Similitude taken from building The second Comparison is between Him and Moses as between Lord and Servant For it follows Ver. 5. And verily Moses was faithful in all his House as a Servant for a Testimony c. These words are part of the Minor Proposition and with the words immediately following inform us of two things The one concerning Moses the other concerning Christ 1. Concerning Moses That for his place he was a Servant 2. Concerning Christ That He was Lord of God's House They both agree in this that they had some certain place in the House of God but differ in this That the one was in a lower the other in a higher place Moses though faithful yet was but a Servant He was God's Servant in an honourable Place and in an Office of great Trust For the word Servant signifies an Officer yet because all Officers are Servants therefore by a Synechdoche they are often called Servants under their Soveraign He was a kind of Steward trusted with a general superintendency and inspection over God's House the Church of Israil In a word he was a Prophet and a Prince Yet here he is considered as a Prophet for he was to testify and declare unto the People the Laws and other things God should reveal unto him And it was an Honour to be such a Servant and a greater Honour to be faithful as he was to declare and testify all things which God revealed unto him and to do this without diminishing the least or adding any thing unto God's Word This is one proper Duty of Christ's Ministers to be witnesses of Christ and declare the whole counsel of God faithfully and how happy might the Church be if her Prophets were such As 1. Who did know what the Will and Word of God is 2. Did teach it faithfully and wisely according to their Commission Though Moses in this respect was counted worthy of Honour and deserved to be heard and obeyed by that People yet Christ was worthy in this respect of far greater Honour For it followeth Ver. 6. But Christ as a Son over his own House Here Son is opposed to Servant and his own House to the House of another which is the Master Christ is the Son Moses but the Servant Christ is in the House as his own built by him Moses was in the Church of the Jews as a Servant in the House of his Master giving directions for all things to be done therein according to the Will of God his Lord and Master Christ is not here called Lord but Son but by Son is meant the Heir which is Lord of all For as you heard before God had made Christ his Son Heir that is Lord of all Chap. 1. 2. The Church is his own House for he redeemed and purchased it by his own Blood he gave himself for it which Moses never did and his Father hath given all things into his hands and made Him Head of that Church and House which he himself hath Built Moses was never advanced to this Honour he never had any such Title This excellency of Christ both absolute and comparative we are exhorted to consider It 's represented unto us fully and clearly in the Gospel yet will be of little use to us if we consider it not so as we may the more clearly and distinctly know it and be effectually moved to honour Christ and prefert Him far above Moses For the end of consideration is a more clear and perfect knowledg of the things considered and in practicals the end of that knowledg is to move and incline out hearts This exhortation is but subordinate unto another as the duty of Consideration is but subordinate to an higher and far greater and that is Perseverance which is here thus expressed Ver. 6. Whose House We are if we hold fast the considence and rejoycing of hope firm to the end § 8. The Duty exhorted unto is final perseverance and is here described by the Apostle to be an holding fast of the considence and rejoycing of hope firm to the end This is opposed to Apostacy or a falling off before the end Perâ—everance is conceived to be no virtue distinct in it self but an adjunct of virtues and especially of Faith The virtues here are considence and rejoycing of hope The nature of it is 1. To hold these fast and firm 2. To hold them fast unto the end The subject immediate of this constancy and perseverance is confidence and hope 1. Confidence in this place presupposeth a firm and certain belief of the Truth of the Gospel concerning Christ as the only sufficient Saviour by whom alone God will give us everlasting Life 2. This confidence is a reliance and resting or reposing of our hearts upon God promising remission and eternal Life for Christ's sake alone For seeing God who is almighty in Power infinite in Wisdom unchangeable in his Purposes hath signified his willingness to save us and hath bound himself by his promise upon certain terms expressed in his promise we may be confident that what he hath promised he will perform and will in no wise fail or be
habitation is here meant For only they who persevere unto the end shall be his House in this manner Though it may be said That we are his House now and shall be his House for ever in a more glorious manner if we persevere unto the end This is the meaning of the words The force of the argument from them thus understood is evident and very great For if this blessed and glorious estate of being Christ's House will certainly follow upon the final perseverance in sincere Christianity how much will it move and work upon such as believe and certainly hope that upon this duty performed so incomparable a Reward will follow And how careful will they be in case of all means which conduce to this perseverance For the greater good believed to follow upon any performance the greater and more powerful the motive is This is the second Reason § 11. The third follows and that is from the penalty that will follow upon non-perseverance and Apostacy This reason is annexed to a dehortation from hardening of the heart and apostacy which is unbelief yet this dehortation presupposeth the principal exhortation to Faith and continuance therein to the end and therefore because it is a reason of the dehortation from the contrary sin it must needs be a reason of the exhortation to the duty opposed to that sin It 's taken out of Psal. 95. from ver 8. unto the end And though it seem to be directed unto the People of those wherein the Psalm was composed yet it directly points at the Gospel and the dayes of the same In that part of the Psalm we may observe 1. The dehortation 2. The reason why they should take heed of the sin dehorted from The reason is from an example of the like Sin punished in their fore-fathers The Sin in one word was Unbelief expressed and declared by the effects thereof which were tempting of God and so offending him because they erred in their hearts and did not know or take notice of his wayes The punishment was exclusion out of Canaa◠their rest intended by God Which punishment was 1. Absolutely denounced by way of a final and peremptory sentence passed with an Oath 2. Executed by overthrowing their Carkasses in the Wildernesse The sum of all this was to let them know That if they sinned as their Fathers did they should certainly suffer the like punishment The conclusion inferred hence is That they must have a special care to persevere in the Faith and take heed of Apostacy This may suffice to be observed upon the words of the Psalmist § 12. The next thing is the Application of these words of the Psalmist unto the present Hebrews to whom he writes Wherein he 1. Presseth the Duty upon them according to the words of the Psalm 2. That his counsel might be more forcible and the Duty more diligently and carefully performed he useth two reasons The first from the benefit which will follow 2. From the punishment they must suffer if they fall away 1. The duty is the same which was formerly urged and that is perseverance and constancy in their Christian Profession which is opposed to unbelief and apostacy which is a departing from the living God which in the Psalmist is the hardning of the heart For that passage of the Psalmist presupposeth a Day and Time of God's speaking to mortal man and exhorteth man in that Day to hear and obey constantly till the Day of God's Voice be ended and dehorteth from hardness of heart Disobedience and Apostacy In this place the Apostle making the same application to the Children and Posterity which David did to their Fathers living in his time declareth the Duty 1. Negatively or rather apotreptic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of dehortation 2. Affirmatively by way of exhortation to that which will be a means of continuance and perseverance The dehortation is Ver. 12. Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of Unbelief in departing from the living God Where we must consider 1. The evil dehorted from 2. The dehortation it self The evil is an evil of Sin not of punishment where we have the root of it in the primary subject an evil heart of Unbelief the fruit and effect departing from the living God The heart is the primary and proper subject and also the cause of sin yet the heart as the heart is not the cause of actual sin but as an evil heart and here an evil heart of Unbelief Unbelief may in this place signify perfidiousnesse when the heart inclines to deny and forsake that Truth which was formerly professed and to violate that promise of Obedience made to God at the first entrance into Christianity and so actual unbelief is a breach of Covenant This unbelieving heart is an evil that is a disobedient impious perverted heart This is the basest temper and most malignant quality of the Soul whereby it 's most contrary to the most just and holy Law of God and the conditions of the Covenant of Grace That it is so is evident from the act or effect thereof which is to depart from the living God This departing from God is actual and formal apostacy which is so directly contrary to Perseverance This is signified by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Orginal which is to renounce something formerly received and acknowledged It 's like to a rebellion revolt and renouncing of a lawful Soveraign formerly acknowledged by allegiance and fidelity promised These Hebrews had received the Gospel acknowledged Christ their Saviour made a Covenant with the living God to whom they submitted themselves as their Soveraign Lord Redeemer by Christ. In their Baptism they had solemnly professed their Faith in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and promised obedience To deny this profession or this Faith professed to break this promise to forsake their Christianity turn Jews or Heathens especially after that by Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost that were so strongly convinced of the Truth must needs be an hainous sin issuing from an evil and malignant heart indeed There is an hardning of the heart against the light and motives of the Gospel when Christ is first tendered and not yet received There is an hardning of the heart against the Truth once received this latter not the former is Apostacy and the Sin here meant both hainous both forbidden by God both tending to eternal Death yet this more then the other And here it 's to be noted that positive unbelief blindness and hardness of heart are often taken for the same The Duty therefore is to take heed lest there be such an heart in any of them Where it 's implyed 1. That every one was in danger 2. That this sin began in the heart 3. Therefore all and every one must be very wary careful diligent to avoid the same and all the causes thereof For if they were not well-grounded in the principles of Christianity they
this he in some sort pledged his Beeing and Deity to confirm his Sentence 2. This Oath he sware in his Wrath he sware to Abraham in his great mercy to confirm unto him the immutability of his Counsel which was to bless him and this he did upon the acceptation of his sincere Obedience But this was in wrath not of rash passion which God is in no ways subject unto but in his severe vindictive Justice moved by their abhominable disobedience and rebellion after so many mercies deliverances wonders and convictions 3. The end of this Oath was to make the Sentence immutable His Word and bare Sentence was sufficient but to manifest his high displeasure and to cut off from that People all hope of entrance he added this Oath which in some sort stands good against all such Apostate Wretches who can have no hope of God's eternal Rest which they have eternally forfeited This is the Question To whom did God thus swear and who were those Israelies who by this Oath were absolutely debarred of all entrance into that Land The Answer follows though proposed as the former Interrogatively in these words But to them that believed not This is evident and very clear and by it is signified 1. The Parties who were excluded 2. The Sin for which they were excluded and it was Unbelief They believed not God's Word and Promise were not moved by all his Mercies and Miracles and former Judgments And thereupon became guilty of the breach of Covenant refused obstinately to perform the conditions of it in the obedience of God's Command They hardned their hearts and departed from the living God and became perfidious and rebellious Apostates From these words he concludes the Chapter in this manner Ver. 19. So we see they could not enter in because of Unbelief For this was the scope whereat he aymed to make clear what the cause of their not entring into Cauaan was that special notice might be taken of the Sin that they might take heed of the like Sin that so they might avoid the like Punishment Where by the way we may take notice that God's Judgments are just and He never condemns any but for Sin and as the Sin is more or less hainous so he proportions the Punishment The sum and substance of this example of the Fathers proposed in the Psalm is this That if they should be guilty of hardning their hearts and unbelief as their Fathers were they should be punished with the like punishment under the Gospel And if their Fathers were so fearfully punished for their disobedience to the Law of Moses how much more grievously should they be punished if they disobeyed the Gospel and forsook Jesus Christ their Saviour The whole Chapter as you heard is an exhortation to perseverance in the Christian Profession and that upon several Reasons As 1. The exocllency of Christ so far above Moses 2. The incomparable benefit that would follow thereupon 3. The dreadful punishment they must suffer if they did fall away To make this last the more effectual He 1. Alledges the words of the Psalm 2. Applies them to these Hebrews that by the example of their Fathers they might take heed of Apostacy and Unbelief Yet this Application is but begun here and finished in the next Chapter CHAP. IV. Ver. I. FOR the better understanding of this part of the Epistle we must considor 1. The Coherence with the former 2. The Scope 3. The Method and parts 1. For the Coherence it agrees 1. With the former three Chapters in the subiect the prophetical Office of Christ and in urging the duty of attention belief prosession and obedience unto his Doctrine into the end 2. It agrees with the last part of the 〈◊〉 in a special manner For having made evident that the cause why their Fathers 〈◊〉 not into God's Rest was Unbelief therefore they must take â—eed of that Sin last they â—â—ffer the like searful punishment For he that will avoid the effect must take heed of that cause upon which that effect will certainly follow He further urgeth that exhortation of the Psalmist To day if 〈◊〉 will hear his Voyce so as to be edmitted into God's Rest we must not harden our hearts provoke grieve God as their Fathers in the Wilderness did 2. The scope of the Apostle presupposing a Rest promised in the Gospel is to perswade them and thâ— them up to use with all diligence those means whereby we may attain it and enter In a word it 's the same with that of the second and third Chapters to confirm them in the profession and practice of Christ's Doctrine so as to perse 〈◊〉 unto the end and so attain that eternal Rest and Happiness to which it directeth 3. The parts are two 1. A Dehortation ver 1. 2. An Exhortation ver 11. In the Dehortation we have 1. The thing dehorted from 2. The Reasons 3. The determination of the rest In the exhortation we may observe 1. The duty exhorted unto 2. The Reasons These are the parts and this is the method the particulars whereof you shall understand hereafter To enter upon the first part which is a Dehortation In every Dehortation we must observe there is some evil or sin to be avoided and the duty is to take heed of it The sin is to come short which we cannot do but by falling off from our profession which is Apostacy And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies deficere to fall off and is called a failing of the Grace of God or a falling from the Grace of God Chap. 12. 15. The Sin therefore is Unbelief which was observed in the former Chapter to be the cause why the Israelites could not enter into God's Rest. It 's true that many understand it of the punishment of not entring into Rest which is an inevitable consequent and moral effect of falling away The duty is to fear this and to be very careful to avoid the Sin that they may avoid the Punishment This duty lies upon all and every one For it 's said lest any of you and not only so but lest any of you seem which the Syriach interprets lest any of you be found Some indeed will have the meaning to be that they must be so careful to continue in the Faith that they must not so much as seem to fall off or make any appearance of Apostacy Yet there is no necessity so to understand it for the principal thing is to take heed of the Sin which if committed will appear and be judged and punished This is the duty brought in upon the words of the former Chapter by this illative Therefore as though he should say Seeing ye have so dreadful an example of God's wrath executed upon your Fathers for their Unbelief Take heed of their Sin lest ye suffer the like Punishment § 2. The reason follows from the example of their Fathers applyed to them The sum of it is this That as many of their Fathers
drink it and receive it into our bodies yet if we neither eat the one when it 's set before us nor drink the other when put into our hands we may perish for hunger and thirst So it is spiritually with our Souls in respect of the Word preached and heard only our with outward ears and not received and receiued in our hearts by a true and lively Faith So that the cause why the Word of God being so great a Blessing and so excellent a means of Salvation doth us no good is from our selves or in our selves who either refuse it at the first or reject it after we have professed it and promised to live according to it And this refusal and rejection as they are hainous sins not onely against God's just Laws but his merciful tender of eternal life so they will prove in the end the cause of our eternal misery which shall be greater and more intolerable than those to whom the Word of God was never preached 4. Therefore it concerns us all to fear this Sin of Apostacy as we fear loss of heavenly Rest God's eternal displeasure Hell Death and eternal Punishments The Apostle by this word fear implies there is danger of falling away and if we consider there is danger and the same very great For if we look upon our weakness and the remainders of corruption the deceipt and hypocrisy of our own hearts the imperfection of our Understanding in heavenly things the inconstancy of our Wills our little experience in the wayes of God and the violence and power of temptation from the Devil and the World we may easily see that it 's a wonder if not a matter of amazement that we stand one day one hour yet when we look up towards Heaven remember our Saviour Christ reigning and victorious the power of the blessed Spirit the helps God hath given us the Promises of assistance there is great cause of hope yet this hope doth not exclude but require our diligent Care continual Watching and instant Prayers without which we cannot by which we may hope to stand Oh how should we carefully and constantly attend unto God's Word lay it up in our hearts make it the Rule of our whole life so as to obey his Commands rely upon his Promises and fear his threats and every day call to mind the Profession we have made and the Promises whereby we have engaged our selves unto our God And seeing so few do fear it 's no wonder so many fall and come short of this blessed Rest. Most men presume upon the Promise and neglect the Duty The Israellres had a Promise yet did not enter because they did not believe § 3. There follows another distinct Reason from the former and that is the great benefit that follows upon the performance of the Duty Ver. 3. For we who have believed do enter into Rest as he said As I have sworn in my Wrath c. THere is some difficulty to know the coherence of these words with the former as also of those that follow with these and amongst themselves Some say they come in upon the words immediately antecedent and give a reason why the Word not mixed with Faith did not profit nor bring the hearers into God's Rest For onely we that believe do enter that is There is no entrance but by Faith but by Faith there is Others think they propose a reason why we should fear Apostacy and be careful to persevere and that from the happy consequent and the glorious reward which follows upon perseverance in belief and that is entrance and admittance into God's Rest yet they may referr to those words of the former Chapter For some when they had heard did provoke howbeit not all that came out of Aegypt by Moses For Caleb and Joshua heard and believed and persevered for it 's said of Caleb and it 's the Testimony of God That he had another Spirit with him and followed the Lord fully Numb 14. 24. This he applyes to himself and the Hebrews to this purpose That though some did not enter because of Unbelief yet some did believe and did not provoke and so entred so likewise shall we believing do As the former might cause fear so this latter might cause hope and prove a strong motive why we should fear to fall and be very careful to persevere So that if we will sum up that which went before it 's this in brief To day if we will hear God's voice we must not harden our hearts 1. Because if we do harden them we shall be shut out of God's Rest as our rebellious and Apostate Fathers were 2. If we do not harden our hearts but believe we shall enter into God's Rest as Caleb and Joshua did It follows As he said I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my Rest c. These words serve to inform us of three things 1. That the Word not believed could not profit because by Unbelief they provoked God to wrath and in his Wrath he sware they should not enter into his Rest so likewise we should fear to be guilty of Unbelief because if we prove such God in his Wrath by the like Oath will exclude us 2. That as God by this Oath did exclude none but Unbelievers and brought the Believers into Canaan so he will exclude none out of the Rest promised in the Gospel but Unbelievers and will without all fail bring us believing into our spirituall Canaan 3. That as the Oath so the Exhortation used by the Prophet David implied that as there was a Rest in the dayes of Joshua so there is another Rest besides that of the promised Land Therefore because it might be doubted what Rest either David meant or the Gospel doth promise the Apostle proceeds to prove that there is yet a Rest prepared for God's People under the Gospel and determines what Rest that is This is done by distinction for he informs us of a three-fold Rest 1. Of the Sabbath 2. Of the Land of Canaan 3. Of the eternal Rest in Heaven That it was the intention of the Apostle to manifest that there was a Rest for the People of God under the Gospel and yet that Rest was neither the first of the Sabbath nor the second of the Land of Canaan is evident by that which follows especially Ver 19 10. That it was expedient if not necessary for him to do thus is as clear because he had alledged the words of the Psalm To day if ye will hear his Voice and also said in Ver. 1. That a Promise was left us of entring into his Rest. The first is the Rest of the Sabbath in these words Although the Works were finished from the Foundation of the World And Ver. 4. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day in this wise And God did rest the seventh day from all his Works THE particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is turned here although yet it may signify and
the Holy Ghost given to that end 2. The two latter also may be the same and that is the affection and disposition of the heart answerable to the illumination and an effect thereof The first is a divine and supernatural knowledg of saving-Truth The second is some sanctification and consolation of the will and heart of Man 4. The qualification and condition of these persons were not meerly natural and moral but supernatural For they could not be acquired by any exercise of the natural and moral power of the Soul without a Divine active Power given them whereby they might act upon supernatural objects according to a supernatural Rule And as their operations were supernatural because they had a supernatural Efficient a supernatural Object a supernatural Rule and did tend to a supernatural End so the Consequents were supernatural and divine 5. To fall from the supernatural disposition and estate was a very grievous Sin and a great contempt of God's mercy Christ's merit and the Power of the Holy Ghost For 1. These things tended directly to their eternal Salvation 2. They issued from the mercy of God the merit of Christ and the Power of the Holy Spirit 3. That Grace which they had received and which was in them was real true serious and divine and if they had gone forward they might have attained to an estate of confirmation 4. It was a Crime so much the more hainous because they had received the Truth of the Gospel professed it and engaged by their Baptism in the Covenant and were fully convinced not only by Powers or Miracles without but by the Gifts of the Spirit and divine effects within 6. Yet here is no mention of any firm inherency or deep radication of divine Virtues in their Souls but rather the contrary is implyed For it 's said They did but taste of the heavenly Gift and taste of the good Word of God and taste of the Powers of the World to come To taste is indeed a real participation yet but of a little and in low degree But there can be no state of confirmation till Grace by a firm and deep radication proceed to an universal dominion of Sin and Corruption Yet this radication is not a sufficient cause in or by itself of confirmation which depends upon the Will of God who hath bound himself by promise to preserve Man attaining to a certain degree by his power through Faith unto Salvation which shall be revealed in the last Day For though this estate of one that only tasteth be good and comfortable and hopeful yet it may leave some lust or corruption unmortified which though it doth not appear for the time to the party thus far renewed yet in the day of Tryal it will break out and discover the hidden malignancy of the heart nor fully regenerate For they that have escaped the pollution of the World through the knowledg of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ may again be entangled therein and overcome 2 Pet. 2. 20. 7. Yet this falling away from this measure of Grace and hopeful Condition is not to be attributed to divine desertion For God will not with-draw or with-hold any necessary support till Man by his negligence or pride and presumption give him cause For he loves any degree of Grace and is very tender over the weak and will not break the bruised Reed nor quench the smoaking Flax he will gather the Lambs with his Arm and carry them in his Bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young § 5. Hitherto you have heard what it is to fall away and who they are that may fall away and that they all are Christians yet so that some may make a further progress in Christianity they are not all of one measure The 2. Proposition which for the order of matter might be the third is That it 's impossible for Apostates to be renewed To be renewed in this place is to be initiated and made Christians of no Christians For initiation is the entrance and admission into Christianity as the Apostle intends it To understand this better you must know that Apostacy doth un-Christian a man makes void his Baptism and takes away all Christian Priviledges by razising the very foundation As Apostacy presupposeth the Apostate a Christian first so this renewing presupposeth Christianity formerly received to be lost and forfeited For an Apostate is like a Rebel or a perfidious Revolter who loseth sussabdih and ceaseth to be a Subject contrary to his Allegiance Whereas the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 again is inserted it 's rather to be joyned with the antecedent Verb fall away and signifies that as he was no Christian at the first and afterwards became a Christian so by Apostacy he is made to be no Christian again he returns unto his former estate of non-Christianity And the former estate was a kind of negation this latter a privation of Christianity This renovation if it could be made must be by repentance and way of return For the first initiation is by profession of Faith confession of Sin and promise of Reformation this therefore much more yet this Renovation is affirmed to be impossible That proposition or axâ—om which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impossible is opposed to that which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 necessary and alwayes true for it is alwayes false and can never be true the dis unction and separation of the terms iâ— perpetual Therefore to say That an Apostate may be renewed by Repentance is eternally false because the thing represented by the subject and predicated are eternally separated yet this impossibility is not to be considered in respect of God's absolute and almighty power for he can renew an Apostate by Repentance but it 's in respect of his Will which hath decreed it to be impossible His Power can do it but his Will hath limited his power so that though he could do it yet he will never do it never suffer it to be done This is that which the School-men mean when they distinguish of God's Power and say It 's absoluta aâ—t ordinata Whereas some call this a Proposition modal there is no Proposition but is such and essentially includes the manner how the terms argue one another and here impossible is the predicate and to be renewed by Repentance is the Subject It was much controverted amongst some of the Antients whether such as fell away in time of persecution might be admitted to penance and reconciled to the Church some denyed some affirmed And as their opinion so their practise was some were more rigid some more remisse some moderate The reason of the difference was because they did not agree in the definition of an Apostate and so could not unanimously judge of the parties offending and their offences whereof some were so hainous that though they did not reach Apostacy yet many thought it not safe to admit them to communion because the example might be of bad
it receiveth Blessing from God For it is God that maketh the Earth fruitfull and flourishing and without his Blessing the best Land though never so well husbanded is barren and of this we have frequent experience The Reddition of this is 1. That the thing signified in general is sinful Man and especially his heart Yet there is a great difference of men's heart for though no man can make his heart spiritually good yet every man may make his heart bad and worse then other mens and may by neglect and other wayes much obscure the light of Nature and dull the edge of conscience and so render himself indisposed for better things If this were not so there would be no inequality but all men would be equally sinful which daily experience contradicts A good heart is like good Ground therefore may be an heart not so bad or morally good according to the light of Nature and the power of Conscience which we find in Heathens and somewhat improved higher by Christian Education For the heart to bring forth fruit meet for the Dresser is to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit answerable to God's Spiritual Husbandry and the Showres of his heavenly Doctrine and the workings of his Spirit It 's to walk worthy of our Calling wherewith we are called This is that good and honest heart which bringeth forth fruit unto perfection The Blessing received is the continuance of the means of Salvation the increasing of heavenly Graces and Comforts and in the end eternal Life which is the greatest Blessing of all The end of this part of the Comparison is not only to perswade and encourage to Duty because of the great Blessing and Reward which will follow but also to let others who incline to Apostacy know how they deprive themselves of God's heavenly Blessings and these glorious Rewards § 8. The second protasis or proposition is concerning bad Ground which 1. Appears to be bad by bearing Thorns and Bryers 2. Is used as bad Ground 1. By being rejected 2. Nigh unto Cursing 3. In the end burned This Ground is a bad heart which is manifested by the fruits which are words and deeds tending to the dishonour of God and the hurt of Man And this Sin is so much the greater because of the means of Grace and workings of the Spirit over and above the light of Nature which God hath graciously afforded them The punishment of this barrenness in all virtue and fruitfulness in Sin followeth and there are three degrees thereof The first is rejecting when God takes away his Ministers his Word or if they continue withdraw the powerful working of the Spirit whereupon man is justly deserted of God as unworthy of any farther spiritual Dressing and useless for that end God in his great Mercy intended him The second he is nigh unto Cursing and the sentence of Excommunication whereby he is delivered up to Satan and a reprobate mind Hence blindness hardness of heart and the spirit of slumber This was the case of the unbelieving Jew and is the greatest Curse that can fall upon man in this life The third their end is Burning For rejection and this Curse will end in eternal punishments compared to torment with unquenchable fire This comparison is not only an illustration for the more clear representation of the condition of Apostates but also a very serious admonition to take heed of that grievous Sin and of all things that tend thereunto because the end will be so woful and the punishment so grievous For if men deal thus with their Ground which is devoid of reason sense and understanding how much more cause hath God to punish and that so severely men who are endued with understanding and enjoy so many helps and means of Conversion and Salvation § 9. The second reason of the Apostates resolution is given Ver. 9. But beloved we are perswaded better things of you and things that accompany Salvation though we thus speak THe brief meaning of the words is 1. That though we did sharply reprove you and by our discourse of Apostacy might seem to imply that you were either Apostates or very near unto it yet I desire to be understood in another manner For I have more charity for you better conceirs of you and hopes of your continuance in Christianity so that you need not be initiated again by laying the foundation and I have good Grounds of this my hope 2. This is the reason why I will not lay the foundation again but go on to perfection and further inform you of higher points of Doctrine and in particular of the excellency of Christ's Priest-hood In this reason we may observe 1. His hope and good perswasion of them 2. The ground of this his hope In these words we have a Rhetorical Anticipation whereby he endeavours to prevent the thoughts which might arise in their hearts upon his former speeches and expressions For they might think that he did by them tacitely condemn them as Apostates or in the way to Apostacy And if he did so he must needs wrong them and discourage them for he did tacitely imply though not positively and expresly affirm that they were of a bad disposition and in a very sad condition and this Opinion of them was against charity and truth To remove such suspicious and jealousies out of their minds he in these words assures them of his Charity and that his words were not inconsistent with his good conceipt of them The first that is his Charity he signifies by the term of Compellation Beloved for he loved them with a dear and tender Love as Christians continuing in Christianity This he could not have done if he had judged them Apostates and Enemies to Christ. By this we are taught that it is our Duty not onely to love our Christian Brethren but upon occasion to express it and further to give the reason and ground of our love as the Apostle here doth For the reason and ground of this love was his perswasion of their continuance in Christianity For he was perswaded better things of them c. In which words 1. He confesseth he spake such things as might seem to charge them with Apostacy and condemn them as cursed 2. He yet denies that those words do imply any such thing and that he was so far from any such thoughts of them that he was perswaded of the contrary He did indeed reprove them for their Ignorance and Negligence whereof some of them were highly guilty and also signify the deplorable and desperate case of Apostates and there was danger lest some might in time be guilty of that Sin yet all this was not to accuse them but warn them that this danger might be prevented To reprove and admonish are Acts of Charity and such as the most loving Father in the World may and sometimes must use if he truly love his Children We may represent the ugly and filthy face of Sin and the horrid pains of
The time expressed in the second Axiom was the time when God brought them out of Aegypt in the third Month after their departure out of the Land of Bondage They were in a sad condition when God as a Father took them by the hand and it was a great Mercy to deliver them to have such a special care of them to do so many wonders for them and then bind himself in Covenant to them For though that Covenant was far inferiour to this new one yet it was a great Mercy unto them and tended to their great good The place where it was made is here implyed which was the Wilderness of Sinai Of the making of it we read Exod. 19. of the confirming of it by Sacrifice Blood and a Sacrificial Feast Exod. 24. 3. They continued not in that Covenant for they did prove unfaithful to their God and disobedient to his Laws They forsook him and revolted from their Lord and Sovereign went a whoring after other gods the golden Calves and Idols of the Heathen â—nd polluted themselve with their Abominations And though God had been a Husband to them yet they did all this according to their leud and whorish hearts and this did much aggravate their sin For the Covenant made between God and them was like the Covenant of Marriage a Covenant of nearest Union dearest Love and strictest Obligation and God had carried himself towards them like a loving and most faithful Husband and yet they did Apostate from him and made the Covenant void 4. Therefore God neglected them and regarded them not For he rejected and cast off the Kingdom of Israel and sent Judah into Captivity And why should he regard a leud impious whorish People who had forsaken their God and refused to turn unto him this was a just Punishment for their grievous sin And so it was to their Posterity who adhering to the old rejected the new Covenant 5. This new Covenant was not according unto but different from this old one It differed in the foundation and ground in the terms and conditions in the Promises in the force and efficacy and we might add in the Mediator The foundation of this Covenant whereon as upon its Basis it stood so firm as never to be shaken and altered was the Blood and Sacrifice of Christ without which God would not covenant upon any terms with sinful guilty man The terms were Repentance and Faith not Do this and live The Promises were not of legal Remission and temporal Prosperity but of eternal pardon of all Sins repented of and of eternal happiness The efficacy and power was great for this Covenant gave power to keep the conditions and could purge the Conscience neither of which the former was able to do Lastly the Mediator was the Son of God a far more excellent Priest 6. The Lord said this And this is the second time wherein the Lord is brought in as Witness and that to signify the certainty of the whole and every part of what was spoken And it had been to little purpose if any but God had said so for he alone had power to alter and make void the former and establish this new latter Covenant He only fore-knew what should come to pass and could fore-tell it infallibly He only could make the Prediction good His Testimony only was of undeniable Authority § 10. After that you have heard of the parties confederating the time of confederation and the quality of the Covenant as being new and far different from the old you must more especially consider the Promises which are essential parts of this Covenant by which is manifested the real difference of it from the former and the excellency and perfection thereof For the former was so defective that it could sanctify and justify no man nay by reason of the unfaithfulness and untowardliness of the People under the same it did not reach the end which by it was intended The parts thereof seem to be only Promises yet the Covenant had Precepts and Terms as conditions with threatnings of penalty if not performed and though these are not expressed yet they are not excluded but implyed The reason why the Promises are only mentioned is because they are the principal part upon which the attaining of the ultimate end did most depend And these are solemnly ushered in by these words Ver. 10. For this is the Covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those dayes c. FOR God not content to say I will make a new Covenant adds That this is the Covenant By the former words he signified his Will to make a new Covenant and by these he informs us what this Covenant is and what be the Promises By the former we understand that it was different from the former by this latter we learn wherein the the difference consists and that is chiefly though not only in the Promises which are so excellent that the Promises of the former Covenant were not worthy to be named with them yet this is not all but he again informs of the time after those dayes For as the former Covenant was made after the deliverance out of Aegypt so this latter must be made after the return of Babylon's Captivity And it 's remarkable that he deeply humbles by great and bitter Afflictions both the Fathers and the Children before he makes any Covenant with them For he knew this to be the way to prepare them and make them more ready to obey more capable of his Mercies and more desirous of his Blessings So much Corruption is in Man that God hath much a-do with us for to reduce us and make us a Subject fit to receive his Covenant and his Promises And here again God is brought in a Witness the third time by that Clause saith the Lord to signify how excellent and important and also how certain the matter is The Promises which are the principal part of this Covenant are Ver. 10. I will put my Laws in their mind and write them in their hearts This is the first Promise wherein we may observe 1. Some things to be written 2. The Book wherein they must be written 3. The Scribe or Pen-man who must write them 4. The Writing it self The things to be written are the Laws of God the Table Mens hearts the Scribe and Pen-man is God the writing is a wonderful Work of God whereby the Soul is enlightned sanctified and made capable of nearer Union with God 1. The things to be written are the Laws of God but what Laws these are may be doubted For some will have them to be the several Commandments of the Decalogue Yet these are said to be written in the heart of the very Heathens Rom. 2. 15. Yet suppose they be already in their hearts yet the writing of them there is very imperfect for both the Knowledge of them and power to keep them are very imperfect so that the Love of God and our Neighbour may be
and illiterate People but also of all natural men though of excellent parts and highly improved and exquisite humane Learning both Arts and Languages Besides Ignorance and Error corrupt Lusts inordinate Affections violent Passions indispose it very much and make it most averse from that which is just and good and strongly bent upon that which is evil As it hath no true Notions of the greatest good so it hath no mind to use the means which conduce to the attaining thereof This defacement of so noble a Substance is the Work of the Devil and Sin 3. Concerning God's writing his Laws in the heart of Man you must know 1. That they are not written there by Nature as you heard before If they were what need God write that which is already written 2. He writes nothing in this heart but his Laws and his saving Truths Therefore that which is not written without in the Scripture he doth not promise to write within the Heart and whosoever shall fancy any Doctrine received in his heart to be written by the hand of Heaven and yet cannot find it in the Gospel is deceived and deluded 3. Before these divine Doctrines can be written in the heart all Errors Lusts false Opinions must be rased and rooted out of the Soul and it must be made like blank paper This is the reason why we are commanded to prepare our selves for the hearing and reading of God's Word to be like good ground to put away all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness all Malice all Guile and Hypocrisies and Envies and evil-speaking and like new-born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word of God 4. God doth not write his Laws in our heats by Enthusiasm Rapture and Inspiration as he wrote his Word in the hearts of the Prophets and Apostles but he makes use of the Word and the Ministers of the Gospel and the Instructions of Man as also of the outward senses as of the Eye and Ear and also of the inward and of Reason and of all the powers he hath given Man to do any thing in this Work And whosoever will not use these means and exercise this Power by Reading Hearing Meditation Conference Prayer let him never expect or think that God will write these things in his heart The neglect of these helps is the Cause why Enthusiasts who pretend the Spirit and persons of high attainments as they boast as though they were above Ordinances have so little solid and saving Knowledg of God's Word fall into so many absurd abominable Errors 5. The Effect of this writing of God is not only Knowledge but also a Love of the Truth Light and Integrity Power and Dominion over Sin and the powerful Sanctifications and Consolations of the Spirit And whosoever doth not find these in his heart let him not think that God hath written his Laws in his heart For he writes with Power and leavs a permanent Tincture of holiness and a constant habitual inclination to that which is good just and right 6. God doth not write these Laws perfectly and fully in Man's heart whilst he is in the Flesh for he proceeds in this Work by degrees Therefore seeing God hath ordained means and commanded them to be used no Man must neglect them whilst this mortal life continues for these Truths are not written in any of our hearts further than we use these means which were given not only for the first inscription of these Laws but for the encrease and perfection of our divine Knowledge This was the way which Christ and his Apostles took for the Conversion Edification and Confirmation of their Disciples If this were not so what need was there of so many Epistles and in particular of this to be written to so many Converts and regenerate Saints 7. Though God doth both begin and encrease our Knowledg and Sanctification by these means yet this Work of his is immediate upon the Soul and far more excellent than these means can reach § 11. The end of this Promise made and the issue of it performed is to acknowledg and receive God as our God in Christ and to submit unto him with a real hearty and total Submission as to our onely Lord and Redeemer that so he may protect and bless us and we may serve and obey him And this we cannot do except God first write his Laws in our hearts therefore this must needs be the first Promise upon which the rest do depend and that whereby he in great Mercy binds himself to give us his preventing Grace and the continuance of it For such is our Case that except he prevent us by granting and vouchsasing unto us both the means of Conversion and the Power of his Spirit to make them effectual upon our immortal Souls we can never take him to be our God so as to become his People and loyal Subjects And upon this done he will be our God and take us for his People and so he promiseth here in this Ver. 10. And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People THis is the second Promise of this new Covenant Where we must understand what it is for God to be a God unto any People and for any Persons to be his People This latter is easily known if we know the former 1. Therefore it is not for God to be God absolutely in himself most perfect glorious infinitely and eternally blessed for so he was from everlasting Yet except he be thus God in himself he cannot be a God to any Creature Neither 2. Is it to be a God by Creation Preservation and Ordination for so he is to all Creatures and to every one of them whilst they have their Being Nor 3. Is it to be a God in an higher degree to men as immortal and rational Creatures for so he is to all men Nor 4. Is it meerly to be a God in a peculiar manner to some certain People by choosing and singling them from amongst other men so as to enter into some special Covenant with them and to take a special care of them and to bless them with some special blessings and deliverances for so he was a God to the Jews But 5. It is to be a God unto any Persons or People by a new Covenant of eternal Mercy and Salvation by Jesus Christ exhibited and glorisied And to be his People is to be his Subjects of his special Kingdom so as to receive from him as their Lord-Redeemer spiritual and eternal Protection and Blessings This is the meaning of this Expression in this place In a word it 's a Promise of admission into his Kingdom of Grace and Glory To know this more distinctly we must take notice that to be God in this manner is so to exercise his Wisdom Power and Mercy in Christ as to protect and deliver us from all evill and give us all Blessings necessarily required to make us eternally and fully happy Thus much is
But the Law had but the Shadow not the very Image Therefore it could not perfect the commers To understand this with that which follows more fully we must observe That the Question is Whether the Law by the Service and Sacrifices prescribed in it could perfect or sanctify any man that did use or observe them The Apostle denies this and proves the Negative and by this Argument because it had but the Shadow not the Substance of good things to come The Propositions in the Text are two 1. The Law had a Shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things 2. The Law could never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the commers thereunto perfect In the first we have 1. A Shadow of things to come 2. The very Image of the things 3. The Law which is affirmed to have the Shadow not the very Image of good things to come 1. The good things to come are some great and excellent Blessings which issued from the great Love of God to sinful Man and tended to his everlasting Salvation and Happiness and they were to come upon the Exhibition of Christ and the Revelation of the Gospel These were Christ the Work of Redemption and the benefits of Redemption Of this Phrase I have formerly spoken Chap. 9. 11. where we â—ead Christ was said to be come an High-Priest of good things to come The Shadow of these good things is the same which was called a Type or Figure that is an imperfect and dark Representation Christ was represented of old not onely by words in the Promises but by things yet in such a manner as that the People of former times had no clear and distinct Knowledg of these things as under the Gospel now we have It was a Mercy of God to give them a Shadow and by the same remind them often of their Saviour that they might the more desire him long for him and expect his coming 2. The very Image of the things themselvs according to some is a more lively Representation of them and these think the Expression to be taken from Limmers which first make a rude Draught after that finish and perfect it so as that the Picture is a more full distinct and lively Representation of the thing to be represented This they make the difference between a Shadow and the Image and this is thus far true as that they under the Law had but a rude imperfect and dark Representation of these good things which the Gospel doth reveal and represent to us far more clearly Their Light might be like that of the Moon and Stars ouâ—'s like that of the Sun already risen Yet others do observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An Image is two-fold 1. The Pattern or Samplar 2. That which is conformed to the Pattern and in this place the Image may be the Pattern and Samplar it self of which the Ceremonies of the Law were imperfect Figurations The word in the Syriack signifying Ipse and turned by the Syriack Translator Ipsa Substantia seems to favour this sense So that the very Image of the things is both the lively Representation of them and the things themselvs represented 3. The Law had the one not the other Where by the Law understand the Ceremonial Law of Moses yet so as it was joyned with the other Laws This Law had a Shadow that is did prescribe certain Shadows and imperfect Representations that is Ceremonies or Ceremonial things and the People under the Law were bound to observe them and did enjoy these Shadows for to lead them to Christ and in this they were more happy than other People though not so happy as we under the Gospel And the Reason hereof was that God neither gave them the things themselves nor the clear Representation of them both which were reserved to the time of Christ's Exhibition § 2. In the second Proposition we have two things 1. Sacrifices offered year by year continually 2. Their Impotency to perfect the commers thereunto 1. By Sacrifices are meant Ilastical and propitiatory Sacrifices such as God commanded under the Law to be offered for Sin and the chief of them principally intended were those Anniversary Offerings of Expiation therefore it is said they were offered year by year And though there was an Intermission of the space of a Year between every single and individual Sacrifice yet they are said to be offered continually For as Year succeeded after Year from the time of Moses unto the Suffering of Christ so there was a continued Succession of these Offerings 2. These Sacrifices as Causes had their Effects and such as God intended for they did legally expiate and shadow out and continually remind the People of the necessity of Expiation to be made by a better Sacrifice for ever Yet they could not perfect that is consecrate and sanctify and free eternally from the eternal Punishment due to sin The parties who might expect Justification and Sanctification from them were such as came unto them and did worship God by them that is the parties for whom they were offered and did humble and afflict themselvs at the yearly solemnity of Expiation who are said to be Worshippers in the next Verse and such as did the Service Chap. 9. 9. And this was the impotency imperfection and insufficiency of them The Reason of this impotency is given in the former words for they were but Shadows and how can Shadows have any such causal Power as the Substance hath This Effect was reserved for that substantial and most noble Sacrifice of Christ himself offered by the eternal Spirit without spot unto God Therefore the Jews did exceedingly wrong themselves and prejudice their own Souls when they rested in these and looked not for their Saviour And we Christians are no better when we rely upon the outward Service of God and the Signs of the Sacraments and not upon Jesus Christ the Pith and Marrow of all who can benefit no Man but such as with a penitent heart rely upon him and him alone This impotency is fully expressed by a peremptory Negation for they could in no wise perfect This Effect was too noble and far and very far above the Power and Activity of Shadows This is the Apostle's first Reason to prove the insufficiency of the Sacrifices oâ— the Law § 3. The second Reason follows Ver. 2. For then they would not have ceased to be offered because that the Worshippers once purged should have had no more Conscience of Sins THis is a new Argument taken from the continuance of them which had been needless if they could have purged away Sin so that the Worshippers thereof should have had no more Conscience of it So that here we have 1. The continuance of them 2. The Reason of the continuance implyed For the Apostle argues from the non-cessation and the re-iteration of them and thence infers their Imperfection But there is some difficulty in the
Will and great Command of God which can never be found in the Moral Law That Christ should suffer and offer himself to expiate the Sin of Man This Law is said to be in his heart and he delighted to do it For if he had not done it willingly it never had been accepted or effectual These words are left out in the Apostles allegation not only because he would have them understood but also because the Text of the Psalmist without them was sufficient for his purpose Though it 's very true that in the New Testament several times a few words of the Text cited out of the Old are expressed and the Reader referred to the Book where they are written at large 2. He came to do his Will that is to dye for the Sin of Man and to do this Will and offer himself a Sacrifice for the Expiation of our Sins was the end of his coming For as that was the great Command of his Father so it was the great Work he had to do Not long before his Death he said Now my Soul is troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour Joh. 12. 27. And in his Agony he prayes That the bitter Cup of his Passion if it were possible might passe from him yet concludes Thy will not mine be done Where it 's implyed That it was his Father's Will he should suffer and offer himself and he was resolved to do it and to deny his own Will and submit unto his heavenly Father And again The Cup which my Father hath giveâ— me shall I not drink it Joh. 18. 11. He could have prayed to his Father and have obtained twelve Legions of Angels a Power sufficient to have rescued him from all his Enemies yet would not do it For saith he How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be Matth. 26. 54. Where we must observe 1. That the Father had by the Prophets of Old signified That it was his Will that Christ should suffer 2. That he câ—me into the World to fulfil this Will and to present himself before his Father when the time came and said Lo I come 3. This was written in the Volume of God's Book This Book is the Book of the Old Testament and it 's called a Volume because it was not bound up as now Books are but rouled up into a Scroul or Volume as the Hebrew word doth signify and as some say The Jews do fold up the Book they read in their Synagogues Therefore is it said That when the Book of the Prophet Esay was delivered to Christ he unfolded it and when he had read a part of it he folded it up again as the word in the Original signifieth Luke 4. 17 20. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is turned by Aquila 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Symmachus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Hierom Pagnine Pratensis Tremelius and Junius Volumen by the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the Vulgar Caput and so in this place Tremelius and Beza translate it Schindler thinks the Septuagint took Megittah for Gilgoleth which signifies the Scul or the Head But this is not likely We need not much trouble our selves about the Word For as Genebrard observes the meaning is That it was written of him in the whole body of the Scriptures and the sum of them for the sum of Moses and the Prophets is Christ. And it 's certain That Christ was the principal Subject of all their Writings which Christ read and perfectly knew his Fathers Will revealed in them that men might believe in him and expect Salvation from him This Will so perfectly known to Christ was in his heart which he delighted to do and was resolved upon it Thus must we deny our own natural Desires to suffer loss of life and cruel pains to do the Will of God if we will be Christ's Disciples and receive benefit by him § 8. Thus far the words of the Psalmist the Apostle's Application followeth which will be the more perspicuous if we consider the Subject of his discourse and the scope whereat he aims His Subject is the sanctification and perfection of such aâ— Worship God by Sacrifices and Offerings and his scope is this to prove that the Legal Sacrifices and Offerings could not expiate Sin and perfect the Worshippers because that effect was reserved for an higher Cause and for a more excellent Sacrifice Thus much premised the Apostle having recited the words of the Psalm observes three things in them 1. The rejection of the Legal Offerings and that in these two words Thou wouldst not and thou hadst no pleasure therein 2. The acceptation of the Sacrifice of Christ the Offering whereof was the doing God's Will 3. The reason why he rejected and took away the former was that he might establish the latter And seeing these were the words of God spoken by the Prophet David and that in time of the Law and that they plainly signify the Will of God in the matter of Sacrifices therefore the argument was strong and evincing and did clearly prove that the Legal Offerings could not take away sin but Christ's could § 9. That Christ's Offering could do this he affirms saying Ver. 10. By which Will we are sanctified by the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all HEre the Apostle returns again unto the Sacrifice of Christ and proves it far more excellent then those of the Law and that especially in two things 1. In that it could sanctify which they could not 2. It did sanctify being but one and once offered whereas they were many and often offered This excellency virtue and efficacy is set forth two wayes 1. Absolutely ver 10. 2. Comparatively ver 11 12 13 14. In these words where we have the virtue of this Sacrifice asserted absolutely we have two things 1. An Effect our Sanctification 2. The Cause the Will of God through the once offering of the Body of Christ. Where 1. We must not understand by Sanctification only a communication of inherent Righteousness in renuing the Image of God in us but also Justification and a freedom from all Sin and all the consequents thereof so that we shall never Sin or be guilty of Sin any more This is a rare and noble Effect and such as upon the same we shall be fully and for ever blessed 2. The Cause of this is God's Will through Christ's Body once offered And here by Will is meant the Will and Command of God signifyed to Christ that he should offer his Body once with his promise to accept it Yet this Will may be considered 1. As a Law or Command given and signified to Christ. 2. As performed by Christ in which latter sense it is here taken principally For it 's not this Will or Command but this Will done that doth sanctify If God had given this Command and Christ had never
and of our Title to eternal Life and of our perseverance it might be though an high degree of Faith and separable from true and sincere Faith in many but the object of this full Assurance is the Word and Promise of God considered antecedently to the application of them to this or that particular Subject or our selves and to the conclusion we deduce from thence concerning our own particular estate And it 's necessarily required in every one who will draw near to God The confidence and reliance which is grounded upon God's Promise is not an assurance that God hath justified us already or that he will justify and save us absolutely but that he will justify save and reward those who by Repentance and Faith in Christ diligently seek him and by consequence that he will save us seeking him in that manner For the Promises of God include the Duty of Man and bind God only unto such as perform the Duty And he that comes to the Throne of Grace without a full assurance of Christ's Merit and God's Promise and the performance of it to them that do their Duty they come not aright their Worship is not acceptable their Prayers not effectual Therefore said the Apostle If any man lack Wisdom let him ask it of God c. But let him ask it in Faith nothing wavering c. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of God Jam. 1. 5 6 7. Where by a wavering man some understand not only a man not assured of the truth of God's Promises or doubting of them but one not resolved to perform the Conditions of the Covenant For any such unresolved man to think that he shall receive the mercies promised and prayed for is plain Presumption Therefore this full assurance is necessarily required in every person drawing nigh to God even then when he draws nigh and converseth with his God We must therefore draw near to God and pray every where lifting up holy hands without Wrath or Doubting 1 Tim. 2. 8. Doubting is as prejudicial to Prayer as Wrath or impure hands This is the qualisication of actual Worship 3. The qualification of the Party followeth which is the purification of the heart and body For 1. Our hearts must be sprinkled from an evil Conscience 2. Our Bodies washed with pure water and the Apostle seems to presuppose them thus qualified because Believers The expressions are taken out of the Books of Moses in which God prescribed a two-fold purification one by bood which we have spoken of another by water And no person legally impure might draw nigh to God to worship him in the Tabernacle or Temple before he was purified And by this was signified that no man guilty and conscious of sin is fit to draw nigh unto or to worship God before he be purged from Sin The Ethiopick Translation is not here so wording as many other Translations be but is a Paraphrase and gives the true sense thus Our hearts being purged and our selves purified from Sin The reason hereof is this God heareth not Sinners Joh. 9. 31 But for the more distinct explication of the words we must observe 1. Our Hearts 2. The sprinkling of our Hearts 3. The sprinkling of them from an evil Conscience 4. The purifying of our Bodies with pure water 1. By Hearts are meant the rational appetite and will as subject unto the power of God and bound by his Laws This Heart and Will is the principal efficient of our actual Sins and proper and primary subject of Unrighteousness If this be pure all is pure if this be polluted all that issues out of it is polluted For out of the heart proceed evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries c. Matth. 15. 19. 2. If this be unclean it must be sprinkled that is purged and cleansed for that 's the true meaning of the word For under the Law the blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer were sprinkled upon the unclean and their Bodies being sprinkled with this Blood with these ashes were sanctified to the purifying of the Flesh so that the sanctified might be admitted into God's holy Tabernacle or Temple to Worship God with the rest of the People which were clean So under the Gospel such as are morally and spiritually unclean must be spiritually sprinkled and purged by the Blood of Christ which doth not only justify but sanctify the penitent Believer So that to have our hearts sprinkled is to have them justified and sanctified by the Blood of Christ. 3. The thing from which they must be cleansed is an evil Conscience which the Aethiopick Translatour interprets to be an evil Work or Sin For Evil here is Sin and an evil Conscience is the Sin whereof we are guilty and conscious For nothing doth spiritually and morally pollute us but Sin which makes us not only guilty and liable to punishment but also filthy and unfit for Communion with God 4. The Body must be washed with pure water Some understand the Body in proper sense as contra-distinct to the Heart and Soul and this water to be the water of Baptism which is sprinkled upon the Body and though not physicially yet sacramentally and mystically doth purge it and the Soul too from Sin This it 's said to do by virtue of the Institution by the merit of Christ's Blood and the power of the Spirit For Baptism is the washing of Renegeration by the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tiâ— 3. 5. Yet this purifying cannot be by washing away the filth of the Flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Christ 1 Pet. 3. 21. It 's true that not only the Soul but the Body are polluted with Sin and both by reason of Sin are liable to punishment and both must be cleansed by the sprinkling of Christ's Blood and the Sanctification of the Spirit and this is the principal sense of the words The thing to be observed is That 1. No man unconverted unregenerate not sanctified by the Holy Ghost is fit to draw nigh to God 2. The regenerate who are in the State of justification and sanctification if they contract new guilt must by Repentance Faith in Christ's Blood and Prayer for the Spirit to sanctify them first cleanse themselves before they come to God The Body is but once washed with water and that is in Baptism but as it 's taken here it must be often washed and cleansed by the renewing of out Repentance and Faith So that by Heart and Body is meant the whole man and by sprinkling and washing is understood justification and sanctification not only begun upon our first conversion but continued by our Repentance and Faith continued habitually and re-iterated and actually exercised especially upon our relapfes and contracting of new guilt and pollution David knew this qualification to be necessary and therefore said I will wash my hands in innocency so will I compass thine Altar Psal. 26 6. To
Apostates Therefore as they desired God's favour and an happy End and feared his Indignation and their own eternal Destruction let them persevere and use all means to perswade others to continue firm and faithful to the end And here you must observe that the principal Duty exhorted unto is Perseverance and the rest are subservient thereunto § 25. It follows Ver. 26. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the Knowledg of the Truth there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins IN these words 1. We have a Reason given to perswade unto perseverance 2. Yet this Reason is directly and immediately disswasive and dehorrative from Apostacy 3. Secondarily and by Consequence it exhorts and moves to perseverance For whatsoever Reason is against Apostacy the same is for perseverance 4. This Reason doth seem to imply that the forsaking of Christian Assemblies was Apostacy or tended to it and the day approaching to be a day of Judgment and in particular of the Punishment of such as fall away 5. This Reason begins here and is continued to the 32d Verse 6. It 's taken à poena from the Punishment which is avoided by perseverance and is executed upon Apostates 7. In Form it 's this If the Sin of Apostacy be unpardonable and shall be punished with unavoidable and most grievous Punishment then we ought to be very careful copâ—â—severe But the Antecedent is true Therefore we ought to persevere In the words of the Reason we have 1. The Sin 2. The Punishment which is Unavoidable Grievous The Sin is described in the 26. Ver. to be a sinning wilfully after we have received the Knowledg of the Truth Where we must consider 1. What it presupposeth and that is the Acknowledgment of the Truth 2. What it is upon this presupposed It 's a wilful sinning In the presupposition we have 1. Truth 2. The Knowledg of it 3. The receiving of this Knowledg 1. By the Truth is meant the true pure and most certain Doctrine of the Gospel concerning Christ already come Faith and Salvation This is called Truth because it 's true and most eminently and infallibly true which is no wayes in any thing false and erroneous as being at first immediately revealed from God the God of Truth of all Truth who is not only true but Truth it self It 's called also the Truth by way of eminency as the most excellent Truth revealed for Man's eternal Happiness The Reason of this Truth is the Perfection of his full and clear Knowledge and his absolute Integrity and purest Holiness which both are such as that he neither can nor will reveal any thing but Truth 2. Truth may be Truth and yet not known to any Man or Angel and this Truth was first known only unto God Yet it pleased him out of his great Mercy to reveal his mind to Man and in particular this Truth of the Gospel by Christ and his Apostle who made it known unto others who by that means came to know it For many who heard the Gospel preached and attended unto it attained to the Knowledg of the great Mystery of God's Kingdom and of those things which were sufficient and effectual for Information of the Understanding unto everlasting Life This Knowledg was not Mathematical Physical Political or Metaphysical as some use to speak but Theological and Divine and a Light above the Light of Nature The word may signify not only Knowledg but Acknowledgment of this Truth by a full Assent upon Conviction And this might be caused not only by outward Revelation Information and Miracles but also by the Illumination of the Spirit and supernatural Gifts For God goes far with Man and doth much to save him he many times penetrates his inward parts and by his divine Light and Power enters into his very heart and all this to convert him 3. They received this Knowledg God did not only offer it but give it which he might be properly said to do when they received it They had it not by Nature for it 's far above the natural Man They acquired it but not by their own Power and Industry neither did they merit it Yet in this receiving they were not meerly passive yet passive before they could be active God must do something without Man before he can actively receive he must prevent him by Revelation and Information without and by Illumination and Operation within and this done Man may be active For to receive it is certainly an Act not only of the Understanding which assents but of the Will which approves So that he both wittingly and willingly receives and that with some delight and proceeds to Profession and continues for a while to believe approve profess Though this receiving of Knowledg may seem only to be Acknowledgment yet it 's something more Truth is opposed to Erroar Knowledg to Ignorance Acknowledgment to Dissent Approbation to Rejection of this Truth § 26. This receiving and having is presupposed to Apostacy and sinning wilfully For no Man can loose and fall away from that which he never had either in Title or Possession so none can fall away from Grace or any degree of Grace which he never had The Heathens in Scripture were never said to breâ—k the Covenant of God or forsake God as their God by Covenant Therefore the proper Subject of Apostacy is one in the Church a member of the visible Church and in the times of the Gospel a Christian who hath professeth his Faith in Christ yet of these Apostates there is a difference and there are degrees of this Apostacy For some receive and profess Christianity by tradition and an implicit Faith yet never have any distinct knowledg of the Truth to be believed Some believe and understand more explicitely the Doctrine of Christianity and are convinced of the truth of it yet are never affected with the matter so as to forsake their Sins and reform their Lives but continue in their Sin Some know believe are affected with the matter as so they begin by the power of the Spirit to escape the corruption that is in the World through lust and find some spiritual joy and comfort To fall away from any of these is Apostacy but to fall from the last is the greatest And there was something proper to those times which did aggravate this sin very much For the Truth then was confirmed both by Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost this confirmation was clear and extraordinary and to renounce that Truth so confirmed must needs be hainous and of this the Apostle seems to speak Christians may fall away three wayes by denying the Truth 1. In their Profession Or 2. In their practise Or 3. In both And that denial which we call Apostacy is destructive of Christianity and maketh a man of a Christian no Christian. Yet some may deny Christ or fall into some grievous Sin and yet verily believe in their hearts and retain the love of Christ as Peter and others have
ever This is called Treasure and an Inheritance but divine and far aboe all other Estates which may decay or be taken from the Owners 2. This Substance is in Heaven because 1. It 's in God and in his Power and at his disposal 2. It 's prepared for us in Heaven and the place of eternal Glory mounted far above the Sphear of corruptible things 3. It 's to be enjoyed fully and for ever in the Heavens That it 's better enduring and in Heaven we learn from that Exhortation of our Saviour But lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thievs do not break through and steal Math. 6. 20. and from the words of the Apostle Peter who informs us that the Regenerate are born to an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away reserved in the Heavens 1 Pet. 1. 4. In both these places we find 1. Treasures and an Inheritance which are the same with Substance 3. These far better and more excellent than any earthly Substance 3. Enduring both in themselvs and in the Possession 4. Laid up and reserved in Heaven 3. They had this Substance that is by vertue of God's Promise they had a Title and Right unto it and some security for the full Possession of it in due time by the first-fruits and earnest of the Spirit For this Substance was promised only to them prepared only for them secured only unto them So that in Hope and Reversion they were the richest men in the World 4. They knew this in themselvs That which was the formal Object of this Knowledg was the Promise that which was the particular Object was their own Qualification and fulfilling of the Conditions of the Promise For all that are rightly qualified according to the tenour of the Promise had certain Right unto this Substance and this they knew by Faith But they were thus qualified and did certainly know it Therefore they might conclude thence that they had right unto it Besides the Spirit did testify to their Spirits that they were the Sons of God and if Sons then Heirs And this was the ground on which their Joy was bottom'd For to be Sons of God and Heirs of this Substance and Inheritance was Matter and to know this was an immediate Efficient of Joy This and this known did cause them even in tribulation to rejoyce and so much the rather because our Saviour had pronounced them blessed that suffered for Righteousness sake and they might rejoyce and be exceedingly glad because great was their Reward in Heaven Mat. 5. 11 12. And if we suffer with Christ as they did we shall be glorified with him Rom. 8. 17. The Patience and Faith of the Thessalonians in all their Persecutions and Tribulations which they endured were a manifest token of the just Judgment of God that they might be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which they did suffer 2 Thes. 1. 5 6. § 35. These were their Sufferings it remain we consider the time the remembrance of these Sufferings and the end of this remembrance 1. The time was after they were enlightned Some understand enlightning to be Baptism And it 's true that some upon their Baptism received a divine Light yet the Doctrine of the Gospel is a divine Light and when the blessed Spirit with this Light enters the Soul it gives a divine visive Faculty and Power unto the Understanding represents more clearly the Mysteries of God's Kingdom and works powerfully upon the heart and hence follows Conversion And they were first enlightned when they were first converted they who were first the Children of Darkness became the Children of Light and were translated out of the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light The Reason of this Expression is because Illumination is the beginning of Regeneration For as God first created Light in this visible World so in this second and more wonderful Creation he first makes the Light of the Gospel to shine in the heart by the Power of the Spirit The People to whom the Gospel was never preached are said to sit in Darkness and when the Gospel comes Light comes unto them and when by the Power of the Spirit it enters into our hearts then Light is in us and without this divine Light in us there is no Regeneration The sense is that they were no sooner enlightned converted and born from Heaven but they were persecuted became Souldiers and were put to fight 2. They must remember what then they suffered The Children of God must not only look forward and know what they must do but they must look back and consider both what they have done and also what they have suffered And so these Hebrews are exhorted to look back and call to remembrance former times especially those which followed upon their Conversion when they were reproached afflicted and spoiled of their Goods These Sufferings must be remembred yet not only these but their Patience their Faith their Joy their Victory and the foil of their Enemies and God's Assistance and Support the Battle and the happy Issue must not be forgotten 3. Yet to what end must they remember all this Not to boast and glory in their own strength and ascribe this happy issue to their own Wisdom and Prowess But they must remember they had been in the Battle had fought a great fight had conquered 1. That they might give the whole Glory unto God 2. For time to come to depend upon him 3. To be encouraged to go on and improve their strength more and more 4. To be ashamed to give back now after their strength is improved Did they when Tyrones and but newly-listed endure so great a fight keep the field and beat off the Enemy and will they now begin to faint and after so much experience prove Cowards and stain their former Honour The greatest brunt was past and the most violent Storm passed over the final Victory was almost in their hands and the great Reward almost obtained Therefore the Remembrance of their former Success and God's Assistance should encourage them much to march on till God had given the Anakims into their hands subdued all their Enemies and attained certain and eternal Rest on every side § 36. After this Motive of encouragement from Remembrance of what is past there is another from the great Reward which certainly follows upon Perseverance And because in the former great fight the Victory was obtained by Patience and Confidence he lets them know how needful this Patience and Confidence was for the attaining of the Reward For thus we read Ver. 35. Cast not away therefore your Confidence which hath great Recompence of Reward Ver. 36. For you have need of Patience that after ye have done the Will of God you might receive the Promise SOme think that the Work of the Apostle in these words and the rest of this Chapter is to give directions and prescribe the means whereby
an Acknowledgment of the Power and the receiving of the Command and it is a willing and free Observation of the Command The Superiour here is God who is the supream Lord Abraham is the Subject to come out of his Country is the Law and Command Abraham's coming out of his Country and that willingly as bound by God's Command is his Obedience And here it 's to be observed that except Man first submit unfeignedly unto God as his Supream Lord renouncing his own Will he can never sincerely obey For this voluntary total Submission is the ground of all Obedience and may be said to be the Observation of the fundamental Law of Allegiance which is required in the first Commandment upon which all the rest do depend Obedience in general is no particular Duty to be restrained to any particular Command exclusively for it extends to all 2. He went out not knowing whither he went In that he knew not whither he went it doth inform us of the total absolute Resignation of his Will and heart to God This high degree of Resignation and Submission is due only unto God as absolutely wise and just and infinitely merciful There be two parts of this Obedience 1. He went out 2. He knew not whither he went 1. He went out This was a difficult part of Obedience To forsake his Countrey Kindred Friends Inheritance which his heart did so much affect and dearly love and to renounce that Religion which he had learned and observed seems to be above natural Power To part the heart and that which it most loveth is a Work that cannot be performed without some mighty conflict and torment of the Soul to overcome our strongest Affections and so forsake our darling-sins is an Heroick and Divine Victory Yet this was done by him and must be done by us all if we will be saved To deny our selvs take up the Cross forsake Father Mother Wife Children Brother Sister and Life it self was first of all required by Christ as without which no Man could be his Disciple The Promise of eternal Life and Treasure in Heaven could not part the young man and his great estate and therefore he continued uncapable of eternal Bliss 2. As he came out so he went he knew not whither for the Command was that he should go unto a Land which God should shew him a Land he never knew for he neither knew it not the way unto it This made the business more difficult for he must depend wholly upon God for his Protection Assistance and Direction And when we leave our Sin we must come unto our God and when we forsake the World we must come unto our Saviour and though the way may be very rough and troublesom we must pass through it We must not take up our Rest untill we come unto our Canaan whither out God will bring us 3. This he did by Faith which without Faith was impossible to be be done For except he had certainly known that it was God who called him and believed God's Command and Promises he could not have obeyed so as to come out and go towards Canaan So that this Belief was the very principle of his Obedience without this Faith this Obedience had been not only irrational but impossible But God who was his absolute supream Lord did command him and as almighty and most faithful did promise him a great and glorious Reward which would abundantly recompense his Damages which he should suffer in obeying him and these did effectually move him and powerfully incline his heart to Obedience For God doth know what will work most strongly upon Man's heart and therefore by a divine Light and Inspiration penetrateth the heart and lets him assuredly know that he calls him to eternal Glory so that by this divine Vocation Faith is produced in the Heart of Man and by it he most willingly and joyfully comes unto his God and continues to obey him From all this it 's evident that Man's Conversion is a supernatural Work of God's great Mercy and Power for that which is impossible with Man is possible with God The natural freedom of the Will is a poor impotent thing let us therefore pray earnestly to our God to give us with his Word his blessed Spirit § 12. This was the first and fundamental Effect of Faith in Abraham the second is that whereby he was content to be a Pilgrim and Stranger on Earth that he might attain an abiding City in Heaven which God had promised and prepared for him For so it followeth Ver. 9. By Faith he sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a strange Country dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the Heirs with him of the same Promise Ver. 10. For he looked for a City which hath Foundations whose Buâ—lder and Maker is God THese words inform us that after that Abraham was once by Faith converted and became obedient to the heavenly Call he presently changed his Condition and was a Stranger in this World and a Citizen or Denison of Heaven Such are all the Saints of God upon their Regeneration In them we may observe two things 1. The sojourning of Abraham with Isaac and Jacob in the Land of Canaan Ver. 9. 2. His Expectation of a better Country Ver. 10. In the first we have three Propositions 1. That Abraham Isaac and Jacob were Heirs of the same Promise 2. That they sojourned as Strangers in a strange Land dwelling in Tabernacles 3. They thus sojourned by Faith In the first observe 1. A Promise 2. Heirs of this Promise 3. The parties who were Heirs 1. By Promise understand the thing promised which was the Land of Canaan This was the Inheritance yet they had it not by natural Descent nor by Purchase nor by Exchange but by free Promise For it was promised and that by God who is the Proprietary of all Land and Counâ—reys and could not only convey it but give Possession This Inheritance was but a Type of a far better and this Promise was added to another far greater and more excellent 2. There were Heirs of this Promise or Land promised and to be an Heir in this place is to have a Right unto that Land and the Title and Ground of this Right was God's Promise which was the best and surest Instrument of conveyance in the World Before this Promise they could challenge no Right unto it after the Promise their Right was firm good clear without any flaw at all This is the great Mercy of God that when upon his Command we part with any thing he will give us something better that will more than countervail our damage 3. Abraham Isaac and Jacob were the Heirs For the Indenture and first Promise was made to Abraham sealed and confirmed Gen. 15. and in him it was made to them in which respect they were Joynt-Heifs but the same Promise was made severally to Isaac and then after that to Jacob. The parties who then possessed this Land
of our eternal Mansions and Rest where our glorious Inheritance is to be fully and for ever enjoyed And Heaven is sit for those who were born from Heaven Therefore our Hope is said to be laid up in Heaven our Inheritance to be reserved in Heaven and our many Mansions to be prepared in Heaven This heavenly Country they desire out of their Belief of the Excellency thereof and desired so much as they counted all earthly Countries base and contemptible in Comparison of the same and whosoever doth not desire it in this manner and measure as they did shall never enter into that glorious place of eternall Bliss Some think the Patriarchs and the Saints after them under the Law neither had any better Promise not higher thoughts than of temporal Felicity but the contrary is evident from this place According to the Covenant made at Sinai with Israel as a Civil Society and a Church under Ceremonies they could expect no more but according to the Promise of Christ in whom all Nations should be blessed they looked higher and as they did believe in Christ so in him they looked for the Resurrection unto everlasting Glory Thus far we have heard of the Duty which they performed now follows the Reward or Consequent of this Performance and the manner how God was affected toward them And this Affection appears in two things 1. He was not ashamed to be called their God 2. He prepared for them a City In the first we may note 1. That God was their God 2. That he was not ashamed to be called their God 1. God was their God God may be said to be a God 1. To all men as he is their Creator Preserver and Governor 2. To be such by Covenant so far as he promiseth to protect them and bless them upon condition that they take him to be their God 3. To be such in a special peculiar and eminent manner as he hath bound himself to be the Author of eternal Salvation by Christ to all such as sincerely repent believe and upon their Belief seek an heavenly Country Thus to be a God to any is to justify sanctify adopt raise up at the last day and make them for ever happy He was called their God that is He was their God for in the Hebrew sometimes to be called is to be yet that is not all for to call himself their God was not only to be their God but to signify that he was so and that not only by Words but really by Actions It was God himself who first promised to be their God and when they were dead said unto Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob And again The Lord God of your Fathers the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Jacob this is my Name for ever this is my Memorial to all Generations Exod. 3. 6 15. So that the Apostle might truly say that He was not ashamed to be called their God neither did he think it any Derogation from his eternal Excellency to own them To own base and unworthy Persons is a Disgrace to any man of Reputation and to own impenitent Sinners would be a Dishonour to God Therefore to Workers of Iniquity Christ will say at the last Day Depart from me I know you not Therefore we must take special notice of the Persons whom God did own and of their Qualification They were Persons of a sincere Faith and an heavenly Conversation and such we must be or else there will be no Hope that God will own us God will not be ashamed of any man because he is poor mean miserable blind deformed or of no account in the World but he will be ashamed of any Person though never so great that is not ashamed of Sin If we seek not an heavenly Country and manifest our selvs to be Pilgrims and Strangers in this World though we be never so rich wise potent famous he will not own us because his Justice and Holiness will not suffer him to own our Sins Let us therefore seriously consider what a Comfort it is to have God to be our God and what an Honour it will be for Christ to confess and acknowledg us before his Father and all his Holy Angels All this you may learn from the Illative Particle Wherefore For because they desired a better that is an heavenly Country and that by Faith therefore God was not ashamed to be their God Not that their Faith and Desire of an heavenly Country was any meritorious Cause of this Honour Priviledg and near Relation to God but that they qualified the Persons so that without any violation of his Justice or any diminution of his Majesty he might according to his gracious Promise thus acknowledg them 2. For he had prepared for them a City These words may seem to give a Reason why they sought a heavenly Country And why Because God had prepared it for them Or they may prove that God was their God in that eminent manner from this Preparation of a City for them Or they may manifest That God was not ashamed to be called their God and he did manifest this in that he had prepared a City for them Here we have 1. A City 2. The Preparation of it 3. The Preparation of it for them 1. This City is that which hath Foundations that better and heavenly Country spoken of before and it signifies not only a Place but an Estate The Place is excellent and the Estate glorious and both everlasting 2. God prepared For he loved them so much as he decreed to give Christ for them that by his precious Blood he might purchase and acquire a Title unto it He promised to send him into the World for that end and sent him He makes a Covenant with them and binds himself upon condition of Faith in his only begotten to give them this City He works Faith in their hearts gives them a Title and by sanctifying them prepares them for the possession and enjoyment As for the estate it was ready in his Power from everlasting and as for the place it was finished and furnished from the Creation It was God who inwardly moved by his own goodness and most free Love hath done all this for God hath prepared and made it ready before they be ready for the Possesssion 3. He prepared this City for them not as deserving it but as through the Power of his Grace desiring seeking looking for it for it was never prepared for Unbelievers and such as loving the World do not prize it or long for it For though this Preparation be a Work of his free and abundant Mercy yet it 's tempered and limited by his Justice which will not suffer him to give such holy things to Dogs nor cast such Pearls before Swine and by this Preparation of this City for them and not for others not rightly qualified he signifies his Love to heavenly vertues and his
no Son to be a Son So he was called is that he was chosen and adopted which kind of Filiation is accounted good in Law by the Consent of Nations Yet there is another thing which may be signified by this word called that is he was not only so called by her but so accounted called honoured by others God had made her an Instrument not only of his Preservation but his excellent Education Honour and high Advancement 3. Yet he refused to be called her Son It 's not meant that he was base and unthankful as not acknowledging her tender Compassion towards him when he was ready to perish or her singular Love to him and special care of him manifested in his Education and Advancement No doubt he did account her as his best friend under Heaven and his greatest Benefactrix under God and he did give her all Respect and Honour due unto her as his Mother His own natural Mother might have been willing but was no wayes able to do so much for him This Refusal therefore was no unworthy Incivility Disrespect or base Ingratitude but a free and noble Act of his divine and sanctified Soul whereby he being illuminated from Heaven did see the baseness uncertainty and danger of that great Estate of Honour Wealth Power and rare Contents of the World and did judge the Enjoyment of it if not inconsistent with yet prejudicial to his spiritual and eternal Happiness And upon this account he was willing to part with them for a better end and a great good Whilest we are seeking the eternal Bliss of Heavens Kingdom we must be willing to part with and forsake all things even the most delicious and glorious though we affect them much In this Case we must not only forsake Sin but such things which at other times upon other occasions we may justly love and lawfully enjoy Isaac must be sacrificed if God command it and Christ himself for a time must lay aside his Glory if it be the Will of God that he should sacrifice himself upon the Cross Whosoever loves not Jesus Christ above all more than his Life more than himself he cannot be Christ's Disciple nor expect Salvation and eternal Life by him This was not the Spirit of the World for most men will rather refuse to be called the Sons of God that they might be the Sons of Pharoah's Daughter and advanced in Princes Courts than refuse to be called Pharoah's Sons that they might be the Disciples of Christ and Sons of God Man devoid of Grace and heavenly Wisdom is strongly bent and strongly inclined to the Glory Honour Wealth and Delights of this World they seem so glorious and taste so sweet that they much take the Soul they promise some rare Content and perfect Happiness Therefore men seek and pursue them eagerly hoping and expecting much from them and if they once are possessed of them and enjoy them Oh! How unwilling are they to part with them They prefer them before Heaven and the eternal felicity thereof The young man who so much desired to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and yet refused to receive it upon our blessed Saviour's terms is an Example universally to be remembred and considered for it plainly tells us that to part them and the heart of Man once strongly affected with them is impossible to any created Power and only possible to the Almighty Power of God Hence it doth appear how highly elevated and how excellently qualified the Soul of Moses was who could so fully and freely refuse to be called the Son of Pharoah's Daughter This perhaps was not done without some great Conflict the issue whereof was a clear and glorious Victory 4. This mighty turn and change was made in Moses when he came to years of Age. The distinct and particular Year of his Age when he made this Refusal is not mentioned As for Instruction or Example for any such heavenly vertue it was not likely he should find any such thing in the Court of an Heathen Prince It might be that he might have some concealed Converse with his Parents or his Brethren in whom that Heavenly aspiring Spirit which was in Abraham Isaac Jacob might remain These might inform him of some divine and saving Truths and of that Seed in whom all Nations should be blessed yet in the midst of so many Temptations these could work little upon him Therefore it is to be presumed that as Abraham so he was Partaker of the heavenly Call and this did enable him to make this noble Resolution Howsoever it was with him yet we are born and bred up in the Church upon whom the Light of the Gospel doth continuallp shine and at the door of whose hearts Christ stands continually knocking should learn this Lesson betimes We having so many helps and means of Conversion should consecrate our tender years and much more the slower and time of our riper dayes unto God But wo unto us because we will not know the day of Visitation and the things which belong unto eternal Peace we are worse than the Ox that knows his Owner and the Ass which knows his Master's Crib than the Turtle the Swallow and the Crane which know their times and yet we do not know our God we do not know our Saviour § 24. This was his Self-Denial after which the Apostle informs us of his bearing the Cross Where we must consider 1. His Choice 2. The Ground of it 1. His Choice was rare and wonderful for he chose the Cross Two things indeed were proposed unto him 1. The Suffering of Affliction with God's People 2. The Enjoyment of the pleasures of Sin for a season The one was sweet and in present Possession the other bitter Yet if we consider the Society and Company with whom he must suffer they were the People of God but the other were cursed profane Wretches So that if he look at the Company the Choice was easily made yet if he compare Afflictions and present Sufferings with present pleasures and the Enjoyment of them it would prove very difficult to forsake the sweet and pitch upon the bitter And here we must observe 1. That Self-Denial and bearing the Cross do go together 2. That to refuse to be called the Son of Pharoah's Daughter and to for sake the Enjoyment of the pleasures of Sin and the Riches of Aegypt were the same and he that refuseth the one must forsake the other The matter will be more plain if we reduce this Text to Propositions in this manner 1. God's People suffered Afflictions 2. He was willing to suffer with them 3. He was willing rather to suffer with them than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season 1. By People of God in this place may be understood the Israelites who at that time were the only Nation in Covenant with God and were his People in a special manner and then under grievous Afflictions by reason of the Cruelty of the Aegyptian King Yet this
find this to be so § 9. Because the Faith and Doctrine of Jesus Christ taught by the Apostles is as Christ himself the same yesterday to day and for ever therefore the Apostle dehorteth them thus Ver. 9. Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be established with Grace and not with meats which have not profited them which have been occupied therein THese words are a Dehortation and in it we may consider 1. The Sin dehorted from 2. The reason why they should take heed of it 1. The Sin is to be carried about with divers and strange Doctrines Doctrines divers and strange are all such as are different from the Gospel which is a Doctrine of perpetual and immutable truth and alwayes uniform the same Therefore the word divers may signify such as are different from it and different amongst themselves as all false and heretical Doctrines are though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies new or absurd and such all errors in Religion are They are new because invented and vented after the Truth was revealed and absurd because all such are irrational and many of them very gross They are also strange as having not the same Original with the Truth which was revealed from Heaven and of another stamp and quality By these some think he means Judaism and Philosophy and the Errors and Superstitions of the Morinthians and Cerinthians who attempted to make up one Body of Religion by joyning Judaism and Christianism together yet not only these but all other Heresies whatsoever are here intended They must not be carried away or about with these this is the Duty The Metaphor seems to be taken from Wethercocks or Ships which turn every way as the Wind carries them to be so carried about implies that they turn from the truth of the Gospel believe these false Doctrines and so are deceived as the word in the Original may signify and it signifies the inconstancy of such as receive them as not being firm and fixed in the saving Truth For if we once turn away from that we fall first into one Error then into another and are first of one Sect after that of another and can settle no where We have had sad experience of this in our times wherein many forsaking their Orthodox Teachers and the antient and apostolical Doctrine turned Anabaptists Seekers Quakers and men above the Ordinances of Scripture Sacraments Sabbaths Such we must not be not so erroneous heretical unstable This Text agrees with many others as Rom. 16. 17. Ephes. 4. 14. Colos. 2. 8 16. and many more noted by Curcellaâ—s Great is our frailty in this particular because of the imperfection of our Understanding the corruption of our Hearts the subtilty of the Devil and Seducers therefore let us he well informed in the Truth endeavour to live according to the Truth certainly known pray for the Spirit of Truth to guide us For it is not wit or learning without the Grace of God can preserve us from these Doctrines which carry us away from Christ and cause us to wander in by-wayes that lead our Souls into Destruction 2. The reason is 1. Because the Doctrine of the Gospel can save us 2. These strange Doctrines cannot promote our Salvation it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 1. It 's good the heart be established with Grace not with Meats By Grace may understand the Truth and the Truth of the Gospel so it 's taken Tit. 2. 11. And it 's called Grace because it 's the Word or Doctrine of Grace Act. 20. 24 32. which manifests the Grace of God in Christ and the Knowledg and Love of it is a Grace and Mercy of God To have the heart established therewith is to understand it believe it be affected with it so as to adhere unto it and make it our care in seeking eternal Life And then the heart is thus established with it when the Spirit of God writes it in our hearts so that we know it more clearly and are effectually moved to follow and practise it It must be deeply imprinted in our hearts and our hearts must be firmly fixt in it And this is good and profitable for Sanctification and Salvation but meats are not so By Meats is understood the Doctrine of Meats and by Doctrine of Meats may be meant Doctrine of Ceremonies such we find in the Books of Moses yet all abolished by the Gospel The Jews were perswaded that they were sanctified by the observation of Mosaical Ceremonies and the Traditions of their Elders This also was the perswasion of all Superstitious Wretches whether Heathens or Hereticks For Meats may here signify not only false Doctrines and Ceremonial Observations of the Jews but also all other various strange and different Opinions and Superstitions of all others whose hearts were not stablished by Grace And though men's hearts be never so pertinaciously fixed in them yet they could not advance their Salvation For it followeth which have not profited such as were occupied or as the Greek word signifies walked therein To walk in them is to profess and in their practise constantly to observe them Not to profit them is not to sanctify justify them or make them acceptable to God For that is truly profitable in this kind which makes a man more holy brings him nearer unto God and renders him more capable of eternal Life The sum is they must take heed of all false Doctrines and adhere to the truth of the Gospel And the reason is 1. Because establishment in the truth of the Gospel is good and certainly conduceth to eternal Life 2. The belief profession practice of any other Doctrine is not so cannot further our happiness § 10. There is another reason why they must not return to Judaism or any other Doctrine different from the Gospel For Ver. 10. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle IN these words we have 1. A benefit or priviledg 2. A right unto it granted unto Christians denied unto Jews and others The Propositions are two 1. We have an Altar 1 2. They who serve the Tabernacle have no right to eat of it 1. Altar here is the Priest or Sacrifice offered upon and sanctified by the Altar The Sacrifice is that of Christ's Body slain and offered by the eternal Spirit without spot unto God To have this is to have a right unto it so as to eat and be partakers of it The expression and phrase is Legal and Levitical For in the Law there were certain Sacrifices whereof part was given and offered to God part was given to the Priests to eat thereof part was allowed to the People which brought the Sacrifice and they might eat thereof before the Lord in the Tabernacle or the Temple The same Custom many of the Gentiles had To this the Apostle doth allude and doth imply that the Body of Christ was slain and offered unto
Christ and God who sent him But then on the contrary if the People be disobedient though the Ministers conscience will acquit him and Christ will richly reward his fidelity and pains yet it will trouble him much to see his Labours lost the People's Souls whose Salvation he so much desired and laboured for to perish And as this will be a grief to him so it will be an unspeakable dammage unto them for they shall lose the fairest opportunity of Salvation and shall be condemned to eternal punishments and the same more grievous because their sin was greater then the sin of other men who never heard the Gospel For the greatest punishments in Hell shall ly upon such as continued impenitent and unbelieving under the Gospel and a powerful Ministry For it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Zidon in the day of Judgment then for Bethsaida and Corazin and for Sodom and Gomorrha than for Capemaum These are mighty and powerful reasons and if People would lay them to heart they would tremble to think of disobedience to their Guides Where it 's to be noted that the same word which ver 7. is turned Guides is here translated Rulers for they are not meerly Guides to direct but Rulers instructed with power to command and forbid to bind and loose in the Name of Christ and in the former place the Authour seems to speak of such as were Dead and here of such as are Living And some observe that this is the last Exhortation because the Apostle for other Duties not here mentioned referred them to their present Pastors § 17. Thus far the Epistle hath been continued in the main Matter and Substance and it 's an excellent and profound Discourse concerning Christ's Prophetical and Sacerdotal Office joyned with an Exhortation unto Perseverance in their Christian Profession and Practice That little which remains may be said to be the Conclusion and of the same in a few words we have many parts or particulars as 1. A Request 2. An Intercession 3. An Exhortation 4. An Information 5. A Salutation 6. A Benediction 1. The Request we have Ver. 18. Pray for us for we trust we have a good Conscience in all things willing to live honestly Ver. 19. But I beseech you the rather do to this that I may be restored to you the sooner IN this we may observe 1. The thing requested by Paul and that was their Prayers 2. The Reason of this Request And It was two-fold 1. He was capable of their Prayers and a fit Object of the same 2. Upon their Prayers he might the sooner be restored unto them 1. From this that he desires their Prayers for him we may observe 1. That we must pray for others as well as for our selvs and most of all should pray for the Church and in the Church for the Guides thereof upon whom the Good Edification Peace and Welfare of it doth so much depend 2. That there is no Man living but needs the Prayers of others no not the best and most eminent not Ministers not Apostles not Paul nay Christ himself in the day of his Agony desired the Prayers of the Apostles 3. That though the Apostle doth not mention or express what in particular they must seek of God by Prayer for him yet this was easily understood and we may learn from other places what the matter of their Prayers for him must be they must pray for Utterance Boldness Success in Preaching the Gospel Deliverance from wicked and absurd men and in particular for his Liberty and Enlargement as is implied in the next Verse And he implies that all these may be obtained by their Prayers 2. The Reason which might perswade them to perform this Office of Love was 1. Because he was not altogether unworthy of their Prayers nor any wayes uncapable of the benefit of their Petitions For there are some whom no Prayers and Intercession can help or profit though Moses Joh Daniel pray for them God will not hear But he was none of these for he was perswaded he had a good Conscience and the Reason of this perswasion was because he was willing in all things to live honestly Here some observe his Modesty in that he doth not say I have but I trust I have a good Conscience not that in all things he lived honestly but that he was willing to do so A good Conscience in this place is 1. A Conscience rightly informed by the Word of God and of his own Life as agreeable thereunto 2. A Conscience that could restify of the sincere Intention of his Heart and the Righteousnes of his Actions without Errour 3. It may be a Conscience also which did rightly dictate the Truth and put him on to do good Such a Conscience his was and he was perswaded of it for by due Examination a Man may know his own Conscience or his own Conscience may know it self The Reason of this Testimony of himself might be because some did accuse him that he was an Apostate from Judaism and turned Christian out of hatred to Moses and the Law and out of Design not of Sincerity but he being conscious to his Intentions and the Grounds of Conversion knew this Accusation to be false The Reason of this Trust was this he was willing in all things to live honestly To live honestly is to direct our Lives according to the Will of God and that in all things for true Honesty is a divine Vertue and a Life regulated constantly and universally by the Word of God And though no man attains to this Perfection of Honesty in this Life because every one hath his failings and none lives and sins not yet we may be willing to live so as to be perfectly honest The Will is the Imperiall Power in the Soul the first Mover and Principle of Moral Actions and as it stands disposed and constantly bent so the Life is good or bad Paul's heart was rightly disposed and predominantly bent unto Righteousness and he knew it to be so and especially in his proper Work of his Apostle-ship which was the Preaching of the Gospel which he first undertook and afterward continued upon right Grounds strong Convictions and out of the Sincerity and Integrity of his heart 2. There was another Reason which might make their Prayers in his behalf more frequent and ardent and stir them up unto this Work and that was Hope of his more timely Liberty and Restitution unto them This implies he was in Bonds and that he had some Hope of Liberty which their Prayers might obtain or at least hasten Some think he was then promised his Liberty but not yet fully discharged but whether it was so or no yet the force of the Reason is from the comfort and benefit which might redound to them upon his Release When James was slain and Peter imprisoned earnest and continual Prayer was made by the Church for his Release and this Prayer was so successfull and effectual
obeyed it how could it have sanctified us But Christ came to do this Will and did it And he did it by offering of his Body once for all Where we may take notice of 1. The Body of Christ. 2. The Offering of it 3. The Offering of it once 1. The Body of Christ was the thing to be slain and sacrificed For he had said before A Body hast thou prepared me and here we understand why God did prepare him a Body and that is that it might be Sacrificed So that the matter of this Sacrifice was a Body yet not any Body but the Body of Christ which was the Body of the Son of God and so of God in a singular manner 2. This Body of Jesus Christ must be offered this was the form of the Sacrifice And here we might enquire and search out a reason why it 's said That the Body of Christ was offered And to discover this we must know That the God-head could not be offered For who can offer himself or any other thing to himself Neither could the Soul of Christ be offered because it was immortal For when it 's said That God made his Soul an offering for Sin Esay 53. 10. yet there by Soul is meant the Life of Christ. For the thing to be sacrificed must be slain the Blood shed and it must be offered to God But Christ's Soul though obedient unto Death was not slain had no Blood to be shed could not be sacrified to God Yet his Body might be slain the Blood thereof shed and both tendered unto God In this respect it 's said by Christ himself The Bread that I will give is my Flesh which I give for the Life of the World And when he instituted the Eucharist in memory of this great Sacrifice he mentions his Body broken and given and his Blood shed This Body must be offered and resigned up to God and willingly yielded unto Death out of obedience to God's Command and love to sinful Man with an intention to propitiate God offended and to expiate the Sin of Man For otherwise if it had been crucified and separated from the Body and not out of this obedience and love and for this end it could never have sanctified us For it must be offered yet though offered if not accepted of God as a Ransome for Man's Sin it could not have had this effect For as it was God's free love to give his only begotten Son so it was his free love to accept this Offering in the behalf of sinful Man the rare and excellent effects thereof depended upon his Will It 's true that this Offering in it self was very acceptable yet that thereupon so incomparable a benefit should redound unto Man was from his Will and good Pleasure For though in it self it was far above all Offerings of the Law and the dignity of the person was great yet to sanctify Man and free him from eternal penalty did depend upon God's acceptation 3. This Body was but offered once for that once was sufficient and so much accepted of God that a second Offering of the same Body or any other thing was needless And that cause which by one efficiency can reach the effect must not act again for a new production of it Neither did it seem good to the infinite Wisdom of God to require any offering of this Sacrifice but this one § 10. Thus far the excellency of this Offering considered absolutely in it self hath been declared the comparative excellency is set forth in the words following to ver 15. Where we have 1. The Proposition concering the Legal Offering ver 11. 2. The Reddition ver 12 13 14. The Proposition we find Ver. 11. And every Priest standeth daily Ministring and Offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away Sins IN which Text we may take notice of 1. The Minstration of the Legal Priests 2. The inefficacy or weakness of their Ministration The Priests are of the Order of Aaron and are here implied to be many in opposition to Christ which was but one for it 's said Every Priest These Priests were ordained of God to minister before him and especially the High-Priests which are here principally intended whose principal Work it was by the yearly Sacrifice offered on the tenth day of the seventh Month to expiate the Sins of Israel 1. In the Ministration of those Priests which was principally to offer we may consider 1. The Sacrifices offered 2. The frequency of their Offering 3. Their continual attendance at the Altar for that purpose 1. That which they offered was Sacrifice yet the Sacrifices were many individually yet the same in kind for the same kind of Sacrifice was offered several times And hence 2. The frequency of offering and the manifold Re-iteration of the Act for they offered the same Sacrifices often and many several times 3. Lest this Work and Service should at any time be neglected every Priest stands daily ready to offer such Sacrifices as God had instituted and commanded to be offered at set and determinate times The Sum is that 1. Many Priests 2. Offered many Sacrifices individual of the same kind 3. Offered the same Sacrifice oftentimes 2. Though these many were many times offered by many Priests and often by the same individual Priest yet they could never take away Sin This was their impotency and ineffectual Causality in respect of Expiation spiritual and eternal Where it 's to be noted 1. That to perfect to sanctify to take away Sin is the same 2. That there is a Legal carnal Expiation and a spiritual and eternal and this latter is here to be understood as denyed of the Legal Sacrifices which could not expiate Sin in this manner 3. Whereas it sometimes falls out that that which one Cause cannot many may effect and that Cause which may be deficient at one time may be efficacious at another yet here it is said that not all these nor any of these could take away Sin at any time They could never take it away 4. Whereas Sin may be expiated and made remissible for ever in respect of the Sacrifice yet not actually taken away or remitted by reason of the indisposition of the Subject and impenitency of the Sinner in this place you must know that these Sacrifices were deficient not only in respect of the indisposition of the Subject but also in respect of the active expiating power of the Cause For they never made any Sin spiritually remissible or the spiritual and eternal Punishment removable For otherwise that Blood of Christ which obtained eternal Remission hath no Effect of Justification upon impenitent Unbelievers for before Sin can be actually taken away from any Person there must be 1. A propitiatory Sacrifice and such as God will accept as a full satisfaction for Sin 2. The party sinful must repent believe pray 3. Christ the great High-Priest since his Ascension must make Intercession and plead 4. God the Supream Judg must
pass the Sentence and execute the same The Sacrifice of a broken and penitent heart and of Prayer may be offered often but the propitiatory Sacrifice need not often to be offered one Offering will serve the turn § 11. Thus far the Proposition the Reddition follows Ver. 12. But this Man after he had offered one Sacrifice for Sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God Ver. 13. From henceforth expecting till his Enemies be made his Foo◠〈◊〉 Ver. 14. For by one Offering he hath perfected the sanctified for ever VVHere we have 1. The offering of Christ's one Sacrifice 2. The Reason why it was but once offered In the former we are informed 1. Of the Dissimilitude between the Legal Sacrifices and that Sacrifice of Christ and this is expressed 2. Of their Imparity which is implied 1. The Dissimilitude we find in several things 1. There under the Law were many Priests yea the Legal High-Priests were many this Priest Christ is but one 2. Their Sacrifices were many Christ's but one 3. There the same Sacrifices were offered often Christ's one Sacrifice was offered but once 4. Those Priests after they had offered the same Sacrifice stood ready to offer them again at set times Christ when he had offered once never offered again but sate down at the right hand of God 5. They had no Power to take away Sin Christ by this one Sacrifice once offered takes away Sin for ever 2. The Imparity which is great is implyed in the Dissimilitude for that Sacrifice which being but one and but once offered by one Priest took away Sin for ever is incomparably more excellent than those Sacrifices which being many and offered many times by many Priests could never take away Sin But such is Christ's Sacrifice and such were theirs therefore it 's incomparably more excellent The Text may be reduced to three Propositions 1. This Man offered one Sacrifice for Sins for ever 2. Having offered it he sate down at the right hand of God 3. Being set there he expects his Enemies to be made his Foot-stool In all which we have the Humiliation and Exaltation of the Son of God In the first Proposition there is little or no difficulty Yet 1. The Connexion of it with the former part of the Comparison is made by the Conjunction But for so they turn the Greek Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this place which implies the difference and dissimilitude 2. The Subject of it according to our Translation is This Man but in some Copies the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here it 's read and whereas they supply the Substantive by the word Man this Man yet it may be turned this Priest or this High-Priest as some Manuscripts in the former Verse read every High-Priest 3. When it 's said He had offered one Sacrifice it must be understood not only of one Sacrifice but of one single Offering 4. This is said to be offered for Sins this puts us in mind of our misery God's Mercy and Christ's merit For we have our Sins whereby we are liable to death yet God was so merciful as to give Christ for our Sins and Christ's offering was so acceptable and meritorious that it obtained eternal Remission in respect of which eternal efficacy some think it's said Christ offered this one Sacrifice for ever never to be offered again because of eternal vertue Yet several Copies joyn the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for ever with the latter Proposition which is 2. That Christ having offered one Sacrifice for Sin sate down at the right hand of God for ever So the Vulgar Vatablus Beza Tremelius out of the Syriack and divers other Greek Copies read it This sitting at the right hand of God doth presuppose Christ's Offering and deep Humiliation his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven 2. It is the highest degree of Glory and Power to that which is infinite which is the Power of God as God 3. This Power which under God is supream and universal is perpetually continued to him and his Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom Some think this sitting is opposed to the standing of the Levitical Priests which may be so and so it may signify that his Ministration in the Form of a Servant on Earth was ended and did cease for ever 4. This Session and Exaltation is to be considered not only as a Reward of his Humiliation unto death whereby he merited Remission and Salvation but also as a means whereby he might apply his merits and confer the Mercies which by his Sacrifice he had procured for us For as King he sends down the Holy Ghost reveals his Gospel by the Word and Spirit works Faith in us and converts us and so makes us Subjects capable of the benefits of his Redemption and as a Priest pleads his bloody Sacrifice and by his Intercession for us converted obtains our actual Remission and Salvation He need not offer any more but plead his one Offering till all his Saints be fully justified The third Proposition is concerning his expectation of a final Victory over all his Enemies by the Exercise of his transcendent Power at the right hand of God For so God had said and promised when he first invested him with supream Power For the Lord said to my Lord Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine Enemies thy Foot-stool Where we must observe 1. That in respect of himself all his Enemies are conquered they have not the least Power to molest him Yet 2. In respect of his Reign and Government they oppose his Power continually 3. These Enemies are Sin Satan the World and Death all which must be destroyed in his Church and Saints yet this Destruction goes on by degrees and shall be finished in the end when the Saints shall rise and be immortal and freed from all Sin Sorrow Misery Enemies and Death it self 4. This is expectation of their final ruine is not doubtful and uncertain but most certain And this estate of Glory is opposed to his Death and Humiliation and both his Regal and Sacerdotal Power are subservient to this total final Victory § 12. But here it may be enquired what should be the Reason why Christ's Sacrifice should not be iterated but that one single Offering should be sufficient To satisfy us in this particular the Apostle gives the Reason thus Ver. 14. For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified THE Conjunction For doth signify that in these words is given a Reason of something antecedent and that is why the offering of Christ was but one and this it is Because by that one Christ did more than all the Legal Priests by all their many frequent Offerings could do And not only so but also it did enough to consecrate all true Believers for ever and proved to be of eternal vertue in all such as were capable of it In the words themselvs we